Today, a product’s packaging design has become more important than the product itself.
Customer’s perception of product quality is largely based on the look and feel of its packaging.
There are numerous cases of average products becoming hot sellers due to their attractive packaging design.
Though packaging cannot replace the promise of a quality product, it definitely enhances the value proposition of a quality product.
In today’s business order where manufacturers produce and many retailers sell almost or at times exactly same product, packaging design provides that edge needed to stand out from the crowd.
From our experience as packaging designers, we have listed down different items needed for a complete packaging design.
1. Type of Packaging(s) with dimensions
It is important to provide your shape and dimensions of the packaging to the designer. Requesting a design on a shape that has not been finalized will only lead to lots of rework. The shape and exact dimension of packaging can often be provided by the packaging material supplier or the printer in form of a keyline or dieline. They provide this as a vector file that has a proper mention of all bleeds and margins.
If you do not have a clear idea about what sort of packaging you should use, speak to your designer about it. For a custom product, your designer may need to see a physical sample before she can create a packaging of the right size.
2. Product Name
Make sure to finalize and trademark your name before you create a packaging design for your product. Selection of the font, colours and any pictures/artwork is related to the name of your product. Many a times, the trademarks are not available for specific names, leading to a change in the product name that may sometimes result in changing the entire packaging.
3. Brand Logo
Before you start with your product packaging design, make sure you have your brand logo in place. Brand logo in the logo of your company and your brand name. This same brand name will go on all of your products. Do not confuse it with the product name. Though a brand logo occupies a smaller space on your product packaging, it nevertheless is an important part and should be treated the way it deserves to be treated.
4. Punchline
Punchline is the main statement that goes on your product packaging. It is the shortest possible explanation of what the consumer should expect in the product. The punchline needs to be carefully crafted by a seasoned copywriter. Do not try to replace your punchline with a few words just for the sake of covering some space. This statement will be used in all your advertising and promotion efforts and should therefore sound catchy enough for your consumers to remember.
5. Label / Mono carton box copy
Make sure to provide a well edited copy to the packaging designer. Your copy should have sequentially arranged text for front and back of the label and for sides and top/bottom in case of mono cartons (box) packaging. Information for the front is usually in the form of some product highlights, punchline and weight etc. Information for back side is on the lines of nutrition info, directions of use, support phone numbers, email id, licenses, certifications, price etc.
6. Product picture
If you have professionally clicked pictures of your product, do provide them to the designer. Some products may not want to display the actual product but rather show the outcome of using their product – such as health supplements, food ingredients like flour etc. For such products, please speak to the designer about your image requirements. Most packaging designers have a subscription to one of the popular stock photos websites where you can indicate you can indicate a photo(s) of your liking.
7. Colour preferences
Most companies have some brand colours they want to use on their product packaging and in absence of any specific colour guidance, the designers will go with your brand colours. If you want to make the product design unique and have your own colour preferences, please mention those to the designer before starting the design process. In case you are not sure and want the designer to use her own creativity for colours, please do mention the same.
8. Design style references
With respect to design style, there are many options one can choose from. By visiting websites such as pinterest, one can get to know the latest trends in packaging design for your product type. Packaging styles can range from modern to retro to minimalist and so on. Each style provides a unique look and feel to your product packaging.
Recommended reading: 9 Steps to Create an Amazing Product Label
Recommended reading: How to design food packaging – A comprehensive guide
Recommended reading: How Packaging Affects Purchase Decisions
