BAU, Centro Universitario de Artes y Diseño de Barcelona

Postgraduate in Packaging Design

Barcelona, Spain

DURATION

1 Years

LANGUAGES

Spanish

PACE

Full time

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Request application deadline

EARLIEST START DATE

Oct 2025

TUITION FEES

EUR 5,200

STUDY FORMAT

On-Campus

Introduction

Packaging designers have become key players in companies. Their skills, knowledge, and techniques allow them to establish themselves in a strategic role within multidisciplinary teams.

The Postgraduate Course in Packaging Design offers a training program that combines strategy, creative thinking, design, sustainability and volume to establish a solid foundation that will allow future packaging designers to communicate, both formally and graphically, the product's attributes and design the packaging of the future. To do this, theoretical and practical classes are combined with workshops in which all the acquired knowledge will be applied.

The student will learn to translate the strategy into a unique and differential packaging concept and design and use the knowledge acquired in a specific sector/area of packaging. He will also learn to apply creative and technical tools in the creation of packs that will be able to compete in the market on a professional scale and will acquire a broad vision of packaging design that will allow him to optimally integrate into multidisciplinary work teams.

At the end of the postgraduate course, students will develop a final project in which they will create an ethical and sustainable packaging design.

This training is aimed at graduates, CFGS in: plastic arts, graphic design, industrial design, marketing and advertising and professionals in the sector without specific qualifications who can prove professional experience, who want to acquire the necessary knowledge to participate in a process of strategy, creation and development of a packaging design.

Admissions

Curriculum

Module 1 - Packaging strategy and management

In this first module, the student will gain a holistic view of what packaging design means and its construction process as a key element of brands. They will master the general framework of a packaging project and will be able to size and develop the creative projects that will be proposed to them.

Creative process of packaging design.
Brand strategy and experience applied to packaging.
Benchmark: competitor analysis.
Touchpoints beyond packaging
Ethical, conscious and responsible packaging. Role of the designer.

Module 2 - Research, trends and AI applied to Packaging

Students will understand the changing times in this discipline and will know where its future is headed, taking into account the trends that surround us: new habits, new channels, new technologies and the impact of AI on the creation and management of packaging. Packaging designers are key agents of this change.

Consumer and packaging trends.
Research techniques and methodologies.
The future of packaging: new technologies and AI.

Module 3 - Creative tools and art direction for packaging design

Through theoretical and practical sessions on the different key creative tools involved in the construction of packaging, students will learn to create a big idea, master mood board visualization, and be able to work on art direction for packaging design, delving especially into typography, photography, and illustration.

Big Idea: conceptualization and creativity.
Moodboard: research and creative approach to the project.
Art direction: from concept to visualization, graphic visual system, illustration and photography.
Typography: possibilities of typography in packaging, basic typographic elements, micro-typography and macro-typography.
Illustration: possibilities of illustration in packaging, illustration styles, illustration and concept.

Module 4 - Technical tools and software for packaging design

Through theoretical and practical sessions on the different technical tools involved in packaging construction, students will learn specific knowledge of computer software, as well as understand the possibilities presented to them in the final artwork, materials and finishes.

Photoshop applied to packaging.
Specific illustrator for packaging
Graphic production: Graphic production process. Printing techniques. Preparation of final artwork for printing. Models.
Materials and finishes: types of substrates and finishes, determining factors for printing systems.

Module 5 - Ecodesign and Sustainable Packaging

In this module, the student will be introduced to the world of packaging eco-design and will learn what it means by acquiring the vision, tools and processes necessary to incorporate sustainability holistically in packaging design.

Sustainability fundamentals, product life cycle and improvement strategies.
Qualitative environmental analysis of packaging.
Design search incorporating the environmental vector.
Creativity and conceptualization: limits to finding innovative ideas around sustainability.

Module 6 - Packaging volume

The student will understand the process of creating a volume design –concept, uses, shapes, materials, textures, chromatics, etc.– from the initial briefing, understanding the market context and taking into account the user experience with the packaging.

Volume: benchmark from the volume point of view.
Usability: research focused on the user and usability of packaging.
Creativity and conceptualization: from idea to reality in packaging volume.

Module 7 - Practical workshops

Five specific workshops will be given by recognised professionals, covering everything from briefing to creative solutions in five different areas. Each of the workshops will take a different sector as a starting point in which to develop the project. During the workshops, students will understand different competitive environments and will be able to apply the methodologies, tools and knowledge acquired during the postgraduate course to consolidate them practically and experimentally.

Focus areas that are developed in the specific workshops:

Packaging perfume niche (author).
Sustainable packaging.
Experimental packaging.
Illustrative packaging.
Packaging for innovation – TFP.

Final Graduate Project

Finally, each student will develop a final postgraduate project that will delve into the strategy, conceptualization and design of innovative packaging created to create a positive impact on society. The methodology and creative process taught during the Postgraduate in Packaging Design will be followed and will be defended before a panel. The student, together with the tutor, will choose the starting point of the project that will subsequently be developed.