Integration of local characteristics

Local, not equal to tacky. The Japanese are good at turning flavors into visible landscapes, designing a series of local products based on local characteristics, changing consumers' impression that local products are always tacky, and looking forward to arousing consumers' emotions of visiting the local countryside in addition to sales.

For example, this popular product, ぽんしゅグリア, developed by FARM8, uses pink color blocks to represent dried fruits and a snow crystal pattern to represent mints in the visual design of the package.

Shaking the bottle after pouring the sake makes it look like you're seeing a snowy Niigata winter scene in the sake.

The packaging of this snack full of local flavor uses bright pink lines to attract consumers' attention, and illustrates the ingredients with illustrations, as well as a short story about the producer's farming days and a map of the region of origin, in the hope of conveying the sentiment of the region of origin that can be felt after eating the product, and in the hope that consumers will want to come back to the region of origin to have fun after eating it.

# 2

Using design to drive the economy in the disaster area

Since the 2011 Japan earthquake, the Tohoku disaster area has yet to recover, and the tourism industry is in decline. To boost the economy, the Japanese government has enlisted designers to create a series of fresh and eye-catching posters.

The Japanese government also invited popular Japanese actress Matsuoka Mayu to smile and invite people to visit Tohoku.

Six types of curry packets made from local meat from Tohoku Prefecture were also released. The six different color packages are very eye-catching, and the pictures also incorporate the well-known local culture of each county, and the representative local toys become part of the package design, which is very nice and eye-catching.

# 3

Overseas crossover

Perhaps because of the hosting of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the traditionally conservative Japan has opened the door to the overseas market to welcome a cross-border cooperation overseas.

FIKA, for example, is a cookie brand that, when you look at the packaging, you might think it's a cookie from Scandinavia, but in fact it's an original Japanese brand that's only available at the Isetan department store in Shinjuku, and it's based on the Japanese favorite, Scandinavia, and it's created by Finnish designers such as Hanna Konola and Leena Kisonen.

And for this Taiwan collaboration, three up-and-coming Taiwanese designers spanning three generations, Liao Kiddo, Hsieh Maki, and Cheng Yao-tak, were invited to Nagaoka, home to the largest number of sake breweries in Japan, to design a new label after a sake brewery tour.

Kid Liao used the samurai spirit that brewing professionals put into their sake to design a label that looks like an izakana, a knife that cuts into the soul.

Maki Xie combines his first skiing experience into this yogurt-flavored sake that tastes sweet and sour.

Yao-Te Jung created a graphic of snowy cranberries with a strong taste, printed on the back of an adhesive label sticker that makes the world seem like a lost world when you look at the graphic through the blue bottle that holds the sake.

Why has Japanese packaging design flourished? Look at these works and you might get some sense of it.