Packaging needs to be considered. Packaging needs to communicate clearly and elegantly. Packaging needs to stand out on a shelf. Packaging is important.
But what if it wasn’t? What if we didn’t have to put everything in a box? Can you imagine walking into the Apple store and seeing shelves of computers, and just computers? No box, no plastic wrap, no styrofoam. Just the product. It would be wonderfully overwhelming, the product would become a huge element in the design of the store. Unpackaged product can shape the way customers move through the store, and the way they interact with the product. Isn’t that a goal of retail? To have customers interacting with the product, involved with it as much as possible, so that they just have to buy it?
How much space should a product take up? How much needs to be filled, and how much needs to be empty. How much negative space do you need to think clearly? Most of the bike stores that I’ve been to are like this. The main element in the store is the bikes, with very little packaging. However, most bike stores are designed by people who really care about bikes, not about retail design, so they tend to be boring. Bookstores are the same way, unpackaged books are a huge element, but they’re put in shelves and become a block of books instead of an individual object. When it’s individual, it can be arranged in dynamic ways, but as a solid block, the possibilities are gone.
So go, and arrange things in ways that aren’t the default, that aren’t obvious. Unpackage your products, and utilize them to the full extent of their aesthetic capabilities.