How many times have you bought something just because the packaging was too hard to resist? Probably a lot, right? That behavior alone tells us how important or impactful creative packaging is. It doesn’t matter if you have the best products in your niche. If your packaging is lousy or failed to communicate your message, your business will have a hard time growing.

If you want an effective packaging for your product, you must invest in it. That means you have to work with professionals if you want to stand out from the competition. But hiring pros doesn’t mean you have to leave everything up to them and just wait for the final design. You still need to pitch your ideas and give them your concrete expectations. Knowing what you want for a design can speed up the entire process. 

It would also help if you know what goes into the designer’s mind. By understanding their process, you will be able to supply the right information for all your creative packaging requests. This is where this post can help you. 

 

Steps in Designing Creative Packaging 

Below are the steps when working on creative packaging. 

 

Understanding the Scope of Work 

Before you work with a graphic designer, it is necessary that you know what exactly you need from them. Are you just looking for a label that you could stick directly onto your bottles? Would you like to have a unique box that bears your logo and product name? Or do you need a paper packaging design? 

This greatly depends on the product you are offering. For liquids, you probably have a container already and will just need a sticker label. For soaps, boxes work best. And for food, you can either choose glass, paperboards, or plastics. Although for plastics, we recommend using biodegradable ones as more people are drawn to products that use eco-friendly packaging. 

Now, the importance of providing your scope of work is that the graphic design company can already gauge if they can complete the project. They will have to consider their manpower, tools, and resources. 

Just a quick reality bite first. Creative packaging designs can be costly. So the best solution is to look for a graphic design company that allows you to request unlimited designs. Design Doctor is one of them. Since it is using a subscription-based model, you can request for packaging designs, ask for revisions, and never have to worry about the cost as the price is fixed every month. Their package starts at  $349 per month. 

 

Brainstorming with Clients and the Design Team 

This is where collaboration is highly encouraged. The design team will work with you to further understand your product. Some of the questions you need to answer are the following: 

• What’s your brand identity? 
• Who’s your target market? 
• What type of message would you like to deliver through your packaging?

The graphic designer will also conduct their research about the competition and find ideas that will make your creative packaging stand out from the rest. In some cases, these designers will visit actual stores where you sell your products. That way, they can understand market behavior which they can use when designing your packaging. It’s crucial that you work hand-in-hand with your graphic designer. 

After getting the right information and data, they can now create mock designs. 

 

Starting Mock Design Using Elements of Creative Packaging 

When creating mock designs, your graphic designer will use and play around different elements. As a client, you should supply the right materials, where necessary. This is so they can incorporate it into the design. Below are the elements to be included in your creative packaging.   

 

Shape and Size

Regardless if you need a 2D or 3D packaging, knowing the exact shape and size can help in doing the layout. Now, for those who will require 3D packaging, remember that this isn’t a task for amateurs. You should definitely work with a pro considering that they need to use special software. 

Provide Your Company Logo 

You should never forget your company logo. It is essential that you associate your product with a trusted brand. If your business already has a good number of loyal customers, then adding your logo to a new product can gain traction. Always send a vector image of your logo so that a designer can scale it properly without degrading its quality.  

Choose the Right Imagery 

This is optional since a lot of companies right now use a more minimalist approach for their packaging. In some cases, they don’t include actual photos of their product. But if your product has something unique to offer, the use of imagery is highly encouraged. These should be done by professionals.

Make sure that your images clearly depict what your product really is. Exaggerating your photos can cause a backlash and that’s bad publicity for your product. 

Copy and Typography 

Provide the texts for your packaging. It includes the product name, tag line, ingredients, nutritional facts, and even the warnings. We suggest sending your copy and texts all at once so that there will only be minimal adjustments during the process. This allows the designer to choose the right typography for your texts too. 

Use Colors, Lines, and Patterns That Speak Your Brand 

Colors and patterns play a huge role in influencing buyers. You should have discussed this already during the brainstorming session. To give you an idea which colors to use, here’s a quick guide. 

• White for elegance and purity 
• Black to emphasize class and sophistication 
• Blue for serenity and dependability 
• Red for strength or passion 
• Orange for adventure 
• Yellow for energy 
• Pink for beauty or femininity 
• Green for health and growth 

When creating packaging, it should not only showcase your product but your company as a whole. Remember, your company and your product are not mutually exclusive. So whatever culture or branding your company has, it should reflect in your product’s packaging either through colors, lines, or patterns. This is crucial for graphic designers. That’s why you have to give them an overview of your company’s culture so that they can include it in their design. 

Contrast is also important for creative packaging. Your designer will ensure that everything is visible from the images down to small texts. 

White Space

White space is also crucial for your product design. In fact, this could create an impact. White space is not limited to ‘white’ but can be a solid color or texture. By adding the right amount of white space into your product packaging, your customers can focus on what’s important like your imagery and texts. 

Submission and Printing of Final Design

Once the design has been approved, it is now ready for printing. Take note that there are companies that can provide both the design and the final packaging. Others will only provide the design and you need to outsource printing separately. Make sure that this is clear upon signing the agreement.  

Generally, designers will send a PDF version of your design. 

 

Examples of Good Creative Packaging 

And to wrap this post, we have here examples of effective and creative packaging that you can get inspiration from. 

 

Kiehl’s

Instead of using imagery, Kiehl’s packaging focuses on providing information to its customers. This is effective, most especially for cosmetic products as people are now more cautious about what they use on their skin. They would want to understand how the product was made aside from its ingredients. 

 

Royal Canin

Another good example of good product packaging is Royal Canin. Since they are offering food for your pets, it is only logical to add images that tell you exactly what the product is for. 

 

Butter! Better! 

When doing creative packaging design, you can also think of functionality. Take a look at this sample. Instead of the usual packaging for butter, why don’t you make something useful? 

 

Just Laid

In this sample, you can use the actual product to make your packaging stand out. It has a very simple image but because of its ingenious way of using the product, it became even more interesting. 

 

Japanese Brand Cookie 

Lastly, we have something cool from a Japanese Brand Cookie. This is a fun idea for product packaging. Aside from following the principles stated above, the brand took it a bit further. This type of design works best if your market is too saturated and you have a lot of competitors. As always, humor goes a long way.