Ads are here today, gone tomorrow; (or more usually, just gone today); whereas the efforts of the designer are there all the time, calling out to the potential purchaser every single time they go down the aisle, reinforcing the brand promise every single time the product is used. Yet often there are many snipers in the bushes just waiting to pick off great designs before they get that far.

However, there are many examples that should encourage us to fight tooth and nail for great product/pack designs. From my old industry of confectionery, Ferrero Rocher is a triumph of bull-headed obsession over cold, calculating Cost Accounting.

Making a spherical chocolate with three layers - by no means easy; using luxuriously thick gold foil - an extravagance; putting a little sticker on the top of each one - surely overkill; putting them in a little paper tray THE RIGHT WAY UP - "C'mon. It's a sphere!"; and then getting them all nicely lined up in a hugely expensive plastic box that gets thrown away anyway? Of course, this globally successful brand only ever appeared in this way because the man who designed it, Michele Ferrero, happens to own the company, and had the luxury of not

having to listen to anyone else.

One thing that surprises me in the design space is that our two mega-brewers have denied themselves the potential power of package design by using -

presumably for some massive cost efficiencies - the same bottle.

But thank goodness for Sleeman - a great example of building and reinforcing unique brand values through a package - and also Polar Ice in the spirits arena.

When it comes to graphic design, I'm afraid to say that the most effective killer of great work is often the brand manager, rather than some faceless accountant. Great designs are rarely literal to the brief, mainly because the people who write the briefs don't know

anything about great designs. Neither

did I, by the way; but I found a few handy tools to limit the damage inflicted to the design process.

The 8 Commandments

or How not to screw up your package

1. Really simplify the brief - one objective if at all possible.

2. Get to know the designer, or how will you ever trust their judgment?

3. When short-listing the initial concepts, always include the designer's favourite - not what they think will be your favourite, or what is closest to the brief - but the one they think is aesthetically the best.

4. Recognize that cutting and pasting - "Can we have that logo, in that other colour, on that third background, the same size as that one over there" - rarely works and is a sign you should go back a stage in the process.

5. Ignore all design research (should you have to do any) and I speak as a past researcher.

6. Look for cohesiveness, rather than trying to optimize individual elements.

7. Always consider the designs as the packs will appear in store - if there will be three on the shelf - look at the designs three together on a shelf (Role model - OXO)

8. Ask your partner (only kidding - that's what the VP does!)

Twenty-plus years of marketing was enough for John Bradley; he left to do other things which interest him. He doesn't write this

column to pitch for work, but is just trying to help the next generation of marketers simplify an overly complex profession. He values and responds to feedback at Yknot@cogeco.net.