Welcome to BrainBox. I hope that you enjoyed our chocolate bar game - did you manage to design some great wrappers?

We see packaging just about every day, wherever we go. Whenever we buy anything - food, clothes, stereos, computer games - it usually comes in some sort of packaging. Bottles, cartons, boxes, cases, bags and crates - there are lots of different types. We often take this packaging for granted, or even get irritated by it. Have you ever struggled to open a can of drink, or to get the lid off a jar? Packaging that's hard to open can be very frustrating.

Despite this, packaging is very important. Without it we wouldn't know exactly what we were buying. We remember which things come in certain packaging, which helps us to find our favourite things quickly. Packaging can look good too. If you have to choose between two cheese sandwiches that were exactly the same price, you'd probably choose the one with the nicest packaging, wouldn't you?

The most important thing about packaging is that it protects things. If food didn't have packaging it would get dirty, and we wouldn't want to eat it. If things like TVs or CDs didn't have packaging, they could get damaged and stop working properly.

So although packaging might seem like something we just tear up and throw away, it's actually a bit more important than that. To find out more, check out the rest of BrainBox.