A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

In a recent Comment (DW 27 January) you note that “designers are technically inept”. Is this such a bad thing? No designer can be as technically aware of packaging processes as a packaging engineer or technologist, whose jobs involve keeping abreast of new developments and technology in the metal, glass, paper, board, plastics and pre-press industries, let alone filling and packing equipment manufacturers.

It should be up to designers to challenge the boundaries of technology and for technical staff to interpret that creativity into practical solutions. Allowing manufacturers to dictate new development tends to result in easy-life options.

lt is far better to allow true creative talent to express itself and then apply technical constraints to it, rather than to expect designers to half-understand technological issues and unnecessarily restrict their design solutions.

Barry Jones

Principal

The Packing Development Company

Bromley

Kent