Study Of Contemporary Packaging Design For Traditional Condiment

The food culture has always been an important part of the Chinese ancient civilization. There had been records of "flavor" as early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Traditional condiments include six categories, namely soy sauce, paste, vinegar, pickles and condiment. Reputed as the "essence of Sichuan cuisine", Pixian bean paste is a traditional condiment in Sichuan cuisine and is categorized under "bean paste" of the paste family. Used as the container for storage, transportation and sale, Pixian bean paste package is very representative among domestic condiment packaging, but there is space for further studies.This paper studies the packaging condition of Pixian bean paste, makes survey on its color, image, pattern structure and material, analyzes the commonness and individuality, and discusses the problems in Pixian bean paste package design. Pixian bean paste packages prefer red, yellow and green, with high brightness and saturation. The application of such colors results in similar packaging of bean paste brands. The designer can make more reasonable collocation and adjustment of the three attributes of color so as to achieve distinctive design. There can be logo design, figurative graphic design and abstract graphic design for the package of Pixian bean paste. As for the graphic design, the designer is expected to be creative in graphic design. Pixian bean pastes are kept in traditional containers including can, bag and box. Such traditional structure follows the characteristics in the early times. Package materials include paper, plastic and traditional materials. For the purpose of longer shelf life, the inner plastic bag is the key for Pixian bean paste package design. It is suggested to, with the least influence on its culture and production cost, imitate the natural materials with other substances in order to satisfy the design requirements.In view of the problems based on the study of commonness and individuality, this paper learns from excellent designs of condiment and food packages at home and abroad, analyzes and improves Pixian bean paste and traditional condiment packaging, and proposes that traditional condiment packaging design is supposed to give considerations to regionalism, sustainability, accurate expression, advanced science and technology, economical efficiency, commercial performance, spiritual artistic perception and emotionality.As the last link in the selling practice, Pixian bean paste needs the brand promotion. There are 96 companies that produce Pixian bean paste, with each having one or two flagship brands. Based on the analysis of brand awareness, product positioning and Pixian bean paste packaging, this paper finds traditional condiment packaging and brand act in a complementary relationship in which the brand directs packaging design while packaging design improves brand quality. The packaging has deepened product image.