A Virtual Mockup

Software modeling can provide significant timesavings when moving from concept to final design selection.

LAST TIME I checked my list of top-10 packaging business buzzwords, the term "value-add" had slipped the ranks. Along with other feel-good phrases like "total quality" and "solutions provider," it's getting squeezed out to the jargon fringe by new favorites like "commodity," "consolidation," and "supply-chain optimization." Maybe those terms weigh in heavier during times of economic uncertainty, but I find it refreshing that there are still links in the packaging supply chain where there is opportunity to add value. Where? In the rendering, or visualization, of new packaging designs.

Some current estimates put the number of new product introductions for the year 2002 at more than 22,000—the most since 1995 and 15 percent more than 2001 (Mintel's Global New Products Database, Chicago, Ill.). Take a cruise through the local grocery mart, or a trip down the cosmetics aisle of an upscale department store. You'll see how much creativity is going into the packaging for those new products, or going into the repackaging of old products to make them more attractive, easier to use, or less likely to get crushed at the bottom of a shopping cart filled with other products.

Regardless, for every new package that actually makes it to the store shelves there are often dozens of concepts that didn't make it. At some point, many of those concepts were rendered—taken out of the designer's imagination and put into tangible form so they could be evaluated by a brand manager, or a marketer, or a consumer focus group. Those folks then decide which concept is likely to sell more of the product inside. That's the magic part of packaging.

What isn't magic is how the designer helps others visualize his or her ideas. Depending on the type of packaging, it's often an extremely time-consuming process requiring a great deal of craft. That's where the value-add proposition comes in. Designers will go to extreme lengths, and marketers will pay top dollar, for new packaging mockups that look like the real thing.

Marketers use mockups with the same enthusiasm as first-time parents announcing the birth of their baby. They might send it halfway around the world to get it blessed by a category manager; prop it up for a photo shoot; post it to a Web site; even build an entire launch event around it. Mockups are cherished. After all, they represent our big ideas—not to mention thousands of dollars spent on R&D, and possibly millions of dollars earned from future revenues.

With all that attention being paid to the new arrival, is it feasible to offer up a virtual mockup? A few developers of folding carton and corrugated packaging design software think so. Last fall, I wrote about Impact CAD from Atlanta-based Genline Systems, Inc. ("CAD/CAM … COM" packagePRINTING, October 2002). The Impact program includes a module for creating electronic animations to help packaging buyers and manufacturers visualize, on a computer screen, how a carton is

constructed.

Recently, another major player in the industry, Esko-Graphics, launched its version of a virtual mock-up solution. Called 3D Presenter, it's a subset of release 5.0 of ArtiosCAD, Esko's popular computer-aided packaging design program. The company expects traditional ArtiosCAD converter customers to use 3D Presenter for sales, soft-proofing, approvals, and quality control. And, according to Susie Stitzel, CAD product

manager, the 3D features may also create new markets for the program. "Fundamentally, we've opened the [ArtiosCAD] program so that packaging construction is more tightly integrated with packaging aesthetics," she says. "That creates many opportunities upstream in the packaging design process for prepress and graphic design companies who are also looking for better ways to communicate with their consumer product company customers."

ArtiosCAD 3D Presentation contains five modules for building 3D package presentations and custom animations including an extensive library of standard box constructions; a simplified geometry design program; import and export filters for various CAD and graphic file formats; and a 3D rendering and animation engine.

The animations, which can show complete assembly routines, are recorded in a VRML (Virtual Reality Model Language) file that is compact, e-mailable, and viewable in any Web browser with a free, downloadable plug-in. The VRML file standard is maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium.

Brian Zabinski, VP of creative services for New Jersey-based Taurus Display, has been eagerly awaiting the release. Taurus, an 11-year-old independent converter with revenues in the $22M range, designs and manufacturers POP displays for the publishing and video industries. Zabinski says his clients—companies like Paramount, Disney, and Good Times—have high expectations for fast turnarounds. In some cases, he has as little as two weeks to create a new standee and "get it out the door."

Zabinski is game to try and keep his customers happy by offering a 3D electronic representation of the POP concept during the early stages of development. Timesavings are significant, and the resultant electronic file can be instantly (and inexpensively) distributed to multiple remote sites for approvals.

While still relying on matchprints for color approvals in some of his customers' workflows, Zabinski says he has worked many of his fast turnaround customers into a computer-to-plate workflow using PDF files for approvals, with press-side final checks when necessary. In both cases, offering an additional 3D animated representation is a value-add proposition that Taurus can use to provide the end user a whole new set of experiences. Just the edge Zabinski says his company is looking for, since they "don't necessarily want to compete with large integrated converters on price."

On the wholly practical side, though, Zabinski says the animations will save him time—and money—as they can be used to show retailers how to assemble the displays. "I might have used as many as three designers to put together an instructional video, versus what we can do now with one animator."