The Packaging Design Guide: Process, Briefs, Examples, Materials and Labels
Packaging protects your product, sells it and carries your brand into a customer's hands. This guide gathers our articles on the whole subject, from writing a brief to choosing sustainable materials to designing for specific categories.
If you are starting a project, begin with the packaging design brief template, then read the process article below.
1. How packaging projects work
- The packaging design process: from brief to shelf
- How to write a packaging design brief
- Packaging design examples: what makes great packaging work
2. Materials and sustainability
- Sustainable packaging design in the UK: practical choices for brands
3. Designing for a category
- Food and drink packaging design: standing out on a crowded shelf
- Candle and home fragrance packaging: selling the experience
- Beauty and grooming brand identity: packaging as the main touchpoint
4. Packaging and the wider brand
A note on labels and legal information
Almost every product needs legal information on or with the pack: names, ingredients, quantities, warnings, contact details, recycling information and batch codes. Requirements depend on the product category and change over time. Build them into the layout from the start, check the latest guidance from the relevant authority, such as the Food Standards Agency for food or Trading Standards for general products, and use a labelling specialist where the stakes are high.
A quick checklist for any pack
- A clear hierarchy: brand, product, key reason to buy
- Colour and shape that stand out from competitors
- A range system that scales to new flavours or sizes
- Legal information built in, not bolted on
- A pack that looks good online at thumbnail size
- Materials chosen with recycling in mind
- A prototype tested before print
Our packaging work
We designed the identity and packaging system for Men from Mars, and the packaging, signage and apparel for Hestory. See our packaging design agency London page for the services we offer.
Start a project
Tell us about your product, and we will tell you honestly what it needs. Book a free brand consultation.
