Welcome to the Liv Design blog, an eclectic mix of great design and quirky finds

Barclays is to launch a contactless payment system for it's Barclaycard Visa customers. The Barclaycard PayTag is a sticker that's about a quarter of the size of a normal Visa card and can be fixed to the back of your phone (or any other device). It effectively turns the cardholders item into a mobile wallet. It's a free addition to customers existing Barclaycard account and will let customers make purchases for amounts up to £15 initially but this will rise to limits of £20 in June this year. It can be used at stores where 'contactless' payment systems exist which will soon include Waitrose, McDonald's, Boots, WH Smith, Tesco, Starbucks, Caffe Nero, Pret, the Slug and Lettuce and the London Underground. Concerns have been raised over security as the sticker doesn't require a pin number on purchases but Barclaycard says it comes with the same 100% fraud protection as its other cards and they will refund anyone who loses their card which is then us...

Packaging first and foremost should perform a function. It is designed to contain, hold and protect a product or item. It’s as simple as that. Or is it? It might sound straightforward but there are many factors to take into account before even trying to design packaging. There is a mix of art, science and psychology involved and it could turn into quite a complicated process. Here are a few things to think about. You have to take into account the whole packaging process, including: Substrate  Production methods  Pricing  Health and safety protocols  Distribution and transport  Storage  Longevity and shelf life  Customer expectations  Market  Hopefully you will be working with a client or company that has already researched some of these processes and collated the data for briefing before the creative starts. As a starting point think to yourself, ‘what would make you buy the product?’ What would make you pick it up? How is i...