Abstract

In this paper, we discuss new packaging paradigms that involve the importance of the user experience. We argue for the importance of a package’s visual design being consonant with the product it contains. Today, packaging is no longer limited to the functions of protection and transportation. Packaging is an artifact directly related to the product, often understood as part of it and not just a wrapping. It is also important as a strategic tool for communication. In the context of the user experience, we propose that the visual stimuli of packaging must be in accordance with its content. In this paper, we deal with the perfumery market in Brazil and its peculiarities. We propose that the visual design of packaging must be in accordance with the fragrance. Our hypothesis states that it is possible to assign meanings to smells such as those we have assigned to colors, shapes, textures, and typography. We argue that the better designers understand the effects of smell and the meanings they convey to consumers, the easier it will be to represent them graphically. That said, we present an overview of the Brazilian perfumery market as well as the contribution of visual design. We will present and discuss methods by which it becomes possible to discover the correlation between visual and olfactory senses. This paper is addressed to designers and to the perfumery industry with the aim of eliciting deeper thought regarding the impact of visual design on consumers’ perceptions of fragrances.