PACKAGING DESIGN AS A CONTAINER OF COMPLEXITY: DEFINITION OF PRACTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR A CO-DESIGN PROCESS

The period of technological and generational transition that the manufacturing world and beyond is witnessing represents a growth opportunity for companies, which are called upon to constantly adapt to an increasingly fluid and dynamic system. The speed of these changes necessitates a change of perspective, that is, a shift from the pursuit of rigid and well-delineated plans to the adoption of dynamic and adaptive strategies that can accommodate and synthesize the challenges that the market presents to companies. In this context, design presents itself as a discipline capable of managing the complexity of a project, strategically bringing in valuable resources for different realities. Its approach within a company makes it possible to establish a design culture capable of observing the development of new products and services from multiple points of view, in order to enable - on the part of the end user - an increase in the company's perception and its products on the market. Among the products that best embody this complexity and dynamism, packaging certainly plays a prominent role. In its apparent simplicity, it represents one of the first touchpoints with which the company interfaces with the user of the contained product. It can be considered an industrial product, the design of which must meet the criteria of ergonomics and usability. Today more than ever, its design represents a strategic asset to increase the perceived quality of a company in the market. The application of the typical methodology of design, during the design process of a packaging, is therefore essential to establish moments of dialogue and confrontation between the different players and to experiment with new meanings and new forms of communication "of" and "about" the product. Design becomes, therefore, the guarantor of a fluid process, managed with different players, to bring innovation in increasingly complex systems-products: the new relationships that are activated between different stakeholders become the strategic asset to compete in open markets. In such a scenario, the conversation between corporate reality and academia can trigger significant innovation processes. From the fruitful conversation between two distinct realities can arise approaches that are able to lead the company toward new design processes that create innovative and disruptive products/services, while, on the other hand, they can enable the academy to apply the design methodologies developed during the research that is carried out internally, obtaining feedback from the professional sector. Through a shared project management process, design is able-through moments of confrontation and co-creation to generate consensus at every stage of project development. These "co-design" practices represent real training tools to bring those business realities that do not have an in-house design center closer to innovation processes. The objective of this paper is to verify, through the case study of Comelit S.p.a, how academic methodologies can bring systemic change within the corporate culture, creating new value and dictating useful guidelines for the development of an internal research center. Thanks to joint research work between corporate reality and the Polidesign, consortium of the Politecnico di Milano, the co-creation of a design method was shaped and then translated into the practical dimension in a new packaging model.