In the beauty industry, packaging designers often work for beauty companies alongside a team of professionals from marketing, design, engineering, research and development, materials, suppliers, manufacturers, and production professionals. Packaging designers make a product ready for sale, says Candace Allenson, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).
Where do packaging designers work? This question comes up frequently, not only where they work in terms of the kind of companies they work with but also their actual workspace. Online beauty education students are curious where designers work and what a packaging design agency looks like and where they are headquartered, says Marianne Klimchuk, a design professor at FIT.
In this digital world, there are design agencies around the globe and packaging designers can work from anywhere. A designer may work for a small firm and a large brand or for a large agency on a small brand, such as Glossier.
It’s important to know there are hundreds of agencies around the world that just work on packaging design. They are not graphic design firms or advertising agencies. In the beauty sector, there are packaging design agencies that only work in the beauty category.
The design team or designer often works in a creative environment. A space filled with visual stimulation, desktop computers, and lots of physical resources at their fingertips, from packaging samples, design tools, sources of visual inspiration, and, ideally, a collaborative environment. Some designers work at home as a freelance independent designer or a work from home agreement.
Whatever the work situation, the physical environment in which a package designer works may resemble that of an architect or graphic designer. The space in which creativity happens should be engaging, inspiring, and a place for collaboration. That’s ideally how stellar packaging design comes together, especially in the beauty business.
