Packaging barcode: a corner illuminated by Japanese designers

“The tentacles of the package should be everywhere, but why is the bar code on the package always the same?” I asked, but I didn’t do anything until one day I saw a group of bar code designs by a Japanese designer and learned that they had also asked questions like this. .

Perhaps this is the difference between me and a designer; or it is a difference between a dreamer and an inventor.

Learning about bar code technical knowledge, this group of Japanese designers living in Tokyo began to design interesting codes. Based on the characteristics of the product, they integrated some related design elements with the bar code, making the original boring symbols vivid and interesting, and become an important part of the entire packaging design.

They added a half-leafed apple to the bar code of the apple juice; they designed the barcode of the beer into the shape of a beer mug; the top of the milk was filled with pastures, and even a cow was embedded in the middle of the bar code; they gave Hiroshima. The museum has designed mushroom cloud barcodes...

They call themselves "Design Barcode Team."

In 2005, Design Barcode received the Communication Design Category Good Design Award for its unique bar code design and opened a world in Japan to include Suntory, Calbee and Wacoal. Famous brands such as Wacoal have designed new and vivid barcode patterns.

In June 2006, they received the Titanium Lions, the 53rd International Advertising Festival held in Cannes, France.

Unlike the Gold and Silver Bronze Awards, the Titanium Lions Award was established in 2003 by Dan Wieden to reward those who broke the tradition of innovative design.

For awarding the Titanium Lions award to an underserved small company, the jury chairman, David Lubars, chief designer of North American BBDO, said: "Design Barcode's design goes beyond an advertisement or a design, and it will to some degree. In order to change the world, they have transformed the dead symbols we see every day into a brand new media format."

This is indeed a form that has never been seen before and is the biggest newest idea of ​​the year. In their pen, the barcodes of the original rectangular straight-line boxes turned into swirling or musical notes.

Scott Goodson, designer of Strawberry Frog, said: "The idea seems to be that the brand manufacturers all over the world will pay them."

Now that Design Barcode has gained a bigger place, they have become partners of PACARC, LLC, a well-known company that brings Japanese creative products to the United States. They have begun pioneering work in the United States.

If we wish to use Japanese bar code design, we can inspire our Chinese packaging designers.

Author: Liu Baolong

Reprinted from: Good Packaging Network