Harman/Kardon Packaging Guidelines 2.0
About
Harman/Kardon is a premium lifestyle, professional, and car audio brand.
My Role
Senior Graphic Designer
Duration
02-06.2018
The Project
When I joined Harman International as a graphic designer, I became responsible for Harman Kardon packaging that included headphones, portable speakers, home audio systems, and soundbars—each with unique size requirements, technical specifications, and regional variations across EMEA and APAC markets.
I conducted a comprehensive audit of the existing system to understand workflow and brand consistency. This revealed several systemic issues that slowed workflow, weakened brand consistency, and negatively affected sales and customer satisfaction.
Key issues
Outdated packaging guidelines that no longer met brand needs. The old system didn't cover new product sizes, structures, or materials. Designers created new layouts from scratch, and inconsistent factory printing resulted in mismatched materials, finishes, and artworks. Products on the same shelf didn't even look like they belonged to one brand—degrading trust and hurting sales.
Outdated libraries and missing assets. Designers recreated icons, graphics, and illustrations repeatedly, slowing production and adding visual inconsistencies.
Externally produced user manuals were confusing and inconsistent in both content and format. They generated customer complaints and unnecessary costs due to varied paper, size, and finishes.
The brand needed to:
Unify its visual voice across packaging
Elevate user experience
Optimize user manual production and printing costs
Reduce production time
The Challenge
Develop a comprehensive packaging system that would:
Unify materials, finishes, and artwork layouts across all product categories
Bring user manual production in-house to improve quality and reduce costs
Build organized asset libraries and templates for efficient production
However, this wasn't just a design challenge — it was a political one. Previous internal proposals for updated packaging guidelines had been rejected by management multiple times. Any new system would need to succeed where others had failed.
Strategic Analysis
Before designing anything, I needed to understand why previous packaging guideline proposals had been rejected.
Through interviews with management and review of past presentations, I identified three critical failures:
Weak business framing - Earlier proposals showcased visual improvements but didn't clearly connect design decisions to measurable business benefits like cost reduction or sales impact.
Brand disconnect - The designs looked too modern and deviated from Harman Kardon's timeless, sophisticated aesthetic. Management feared losing brand recognition with existing customers.
Exclusion of stakeholders - Project managers were left out of the development process, felt alienated by the final proposal, and actively resisted adoption.
This analysis defined my strategy: I would create an evolution, not a revolution; clearly connect every design decision to business impact; and involve stakeholders throughout the process.
Working with traffic and structural design teams, I collected all existing assets and data: packaging structures, materials, user manuals, graphic elements, and product renders.
Together, we standardized packaging into six unified box sizes and four structures, eliminating the need to create new die-cut molds for each product — cutting production cost and time. We reduced materials to two core types and simplified finishing to maintain a premium yet consistent look.
My Approach
Standardizing the system
Redesigning user manuals:
Customer service data showed that user manual complaints were driving support costs and negative reviews. I interviewed product managers to understand the root causes and discovered the manuals were text-heavy, used technical jargon, and relied on machine translation—making it difficult for users to find their language or understand basic setup.
I established a single manual size and paper type that fits any packaging. Switching from black to medium-grey covers reduced ink use and scuffing while improving durability and legibility. Matte, textured paper replaced glossy finishes for a more refined tactile experience.
I simplified the layouts and replaced dense text with clear illustrations, which improved readability and comprehension, shortened content, and reduced paper use. Direct user testing wasn't possible, so I validated readability with colleagues from different regions and backgrounds to ensure clarity across markets.
Aligning visual systems:
I audited all graphic elements and collaborated with UI/UX, industrial design, and render teams to align render styles and artwork layouts across all materials.
Throughout the process, I kept project managers informed and engaged, ensuring their input shaped the final outcome.
The Solution
I developed a scalable packaging system that solved each core problem:
Brand consistency:
Updated typefaces, graphic elements, and render styles within a flexible grid system that maintained Harman Kardon's timeless aesthetic while adapting to any product category.
Production efficiency:
Standardized to six box sizes and four structures, eliminating custom die-cuts for each product—reducing both production time and tooling costs.
User experience: Created dedicated user manual guidelines with illustration-focused layouts that replaced text-heavy instructions, improving comprehension across language barriers while reducing paper consumption.
Team adoption:
Built comprehensive templates and digital asset libraries that enabled designers to produce consistent packaging without recreating elements from scratch.
All guidelines were compiled into a comprehensive brand packaging manual and digital presentation for seamless adoption across global teams.
The Outcome
The new system launched globally in 2018 and has remained in active use for over seven years — demonstrating its strategic durability and adaptability across evolving product lines.
Business impact included:
Reduced production time through standardized templates and asset libraries
Lowered manufacturing costs by eliminating custom die-cuts and optimizing materials
Decreased customer support costs through clearer user manuals
Strengthened brand consistency across all touchpoints, addressing the shelf presence issues that had impacted sales
The project also gained recognition within the design community, earning over 16,000 views and two Behance features — testament to both its visual quality and systematic rigor.