Good Design vs Poor Design: 09/21/15

Our competitors are: Tazo Tea vs. Simply Balanced Organic Tea 

I will be analyzing the 3-dimentional packaging of these two teas and deciding which has a stronger branding design. 

Fist, Let's talk about Tazo-

We have a nice use of color here. Inviting yet not over-powering because of the white space. It is obvious right away the brand of the tea because of the size of the name right on the front of the box. We have the line of color along the left hand size of the box that leads your eye to read down the margin and glance at the image. A line of continuity is followed around the bottom rim of the packaging. Although the swirly line fades off as it reaches the front of the box, it feels complete. The law of pragnanz is also apparent here. This design is very simplistic, even down to he image on the front. It gives us a clear message of what is in the tea, without really even needing to read the label... 

... While the design of the individual packaging is quite nice on its own, the real strength of the design can be seen when viewing the different flavors of tea side by side. The images on the front remain consistent, and keep the packaging balanced by placing one object on each side. We can see that even though the images are cut off on the sides and spaced out from one another, the design still follows the gestalt principles of law of closure and law of proximity. The colors change, but the fluidity remains the same. 

I also wanted to point out their chai tea packaging. It is a different version of the original design, but still remains an obvious part of the group without too much separation...  

Ok, next lets look at the Simply Balanced brand. This design is nice, but not as strong as the first example. First, the only continuity happening here is the plain blue background surrounding the package. There are no lines to draw my eye anywhere, or to lead me to want to turn the box and look at the rest of the packaging.When I look at the front able my eye becomes trapped in the circle. Good design doesn't do this. If we compare the side label with directions to the example above we can see a huge difference here. Tazo has taken a huge advantage of all their negative space, and has made the directions clear and exciting to read. They have added an interesting caffeine guide that makes it simple to read and understand. Simply Balanced however, has a ginormous blob of empty space that really isn't working to their advantage. These directions are boring, and almost nothing is happening on this panel of the box. To me there is nothing original or exciting about this packaging. It is a poor design. 

After my analysis, it is clear to announce that Tazo is the clear winner. Their design is neat, simple, and follows all the gestalt principles.