Introduction
The food Package Design process is complex with many factors to consider. Packaging designers have to consider two distinct sides to their work- the physical, constructional side and the other being the graphical design side. The packaging design project seamlessly melds the two, resulting in both effective branding and functional packaging.
Packaging design is an art form and it’s one of the most prominent in the modern world. Every time you pass a shop. Prepare food or buy a product, you are engaging with customized packaging that someone has carefully made from multiple perspectives.
Let’s first understand the meaning of Package Designing.
Packaging design is creating the graphics and also the physical container of the product. Packaging design is critical to the product itself and for the entire company because it becomes a memorable representation of a brand
There are some fundamental questions to ask yourself when designing your food packaging, whether you are the designer or not.
- How will the consumers use the packaging?
- How will consumers use or eat my food?
- Where will they first physically interact with product packaging?
- What will the consumer learn by picking it up?
- How will your packaging physically feel?
- Should the food independently be on the packaging?
These questions don’t tell much about how to design your packaging, but they’re the best place to start when thinking about the job your food packaging has to do.
Firstly creating a new food product is an exciting event for anyone in the food industry. The thought of a new idea, the planning, and finally, the packaging is key phases of the process. When it comes to product packaging design, you can’t spend ample time on it. The packaging is what customers use to decide whether they want to try the food inside or not.
Additionally, your packaging will tell your brand’s story, protect the product during shipment, make it easy to display and keep it fresh. Thus you need to consider all these factors while designing your food product’s packaging.
If you are in the process of planning your packaging, the following are the things you should know while package designing:
1. Create a Brand Identify:
Creating your brand identity goes well beyond simply putting your logo on a product. People recognize brands and want the ones they like. Branding helps customers to find the products they are familiar with between thousands of competing products.
Brand identity is about conveying your brand values to consumers to connect them in a way that makes them invest in your products.
While developing a brand identity for your product, you should always keep in mind to,
- Analyze the company and your market.
- Establish key goals.
- Identify customers.
- Create a personality for the product.
This process includes inventory planning, then developing reasonable goals and objectives that include finding your consumer market. After this, you have to create your brand personality through creative marketing campaigns and strategies.
2. Using Architectural Design Services:
The architecture of the packaging design should fall in line with the three easy principles:
- Form,
- Function,
- Beauty.
The packaging design should be creative and attractive to convince people to buy your product, but it should also be functional. The package’s function is to protect the content and keep its form concerning the size and shape of the product, and the beauty in terms of how aesthetically pleasing it is to consumers.
When deciding on a food packaging design, designers have to make sure that form, beauty, and function are accomplished to not lose money if the product arrives at the store damaged.
For example, many health food products illustrate this idea of combing form, function, and beauty.
Because of the design, the product is probably one of the most appealing ones on the shelf and one that customers would be willing to pay a little more.
By using architectural services, you have created a product that at least appeals to consumer taste.
3. Packaging should complement the contents:
The original food contents are the main factor in determining the food packaging materials. The more flexibility you can get from foods that have more preservatives and longer shelf life than foods that spoil quickly and need to be refrigerated and packaged in plastic-sealed packaging or aluminum.
Packaging has to meet the expectations of the consumer, always be original and also meet food safety laws. It can be a hard balance to make all of these factors work together.
4. Keep the Food Packaging Design Simple:
Designers’ influence in casting a critical look, adding more graphics to labels, and conveying the simplicity of your product has become more important than ever.
As opposed to using complex designs that contain a lot of images or have many different colors, some products are good at conveying this idea by depending on no more than their colors and a simple script to make this point to the consumer.
Now designers have started depending on product packaging design that represents the main focus of the product in a single image in the center of the package and filling the rest with white or black or neutral color space.
This design style not only creates a timeless look that rises above the trends. It also helps customers perceive your product as cleaner than similar products in the market.
5. Make sure there should be Design Versatility in your packaging:
Making sure your design can be used in several ways, is also an important consideration.
It’s a satisfying moment when you have created a brand that consumers easily recognize and enjoy it. But what happens when you need to change and move that brand to a different style of packaging? As your product becomes popular, consumers will demand your product in snack-size options, in bulk, or paired with other favorite foodsThus, it means that if you don’t design properly, the design people have come to associate with your product may not transfer well to different types of packages. A good design that can be readily transferred to packages of different sizes is a useful strategy for your brand’s durability.
6. Introduce Limited Editions:
While designing a package for food, consider including designs for limited editions. Consumers like limited editions of any food product.
For example, Starbucks will advertise their limited edition coffees and purchase, the warm drink always in a seasonally designed cup.
With this modern technology and transportation, we have lost the seasonality of food that used to be a part of our life. But when food is available all the time, it starts to lose its charm. By making a limited edition, you can increase demand from customers who know their chance to experience it will be short-lived.
7. Explore Material options:
Packaging for food is likely to use the same materials over and over for many logical reasons. The package should protect the food and keep it fresh. That means packaging materials come in glass, plastic, or other sanitary materials that are cost-effective and efficient.
While form and beauty are important, manufacturers have to make sure that the product’s packaging is strong enough to transport the food without spoiling or sustaining some other damage.
In a niche market, you can get highlighted by switching up the materials commonly used in your area of the food market. Milk regularly comes in cardboard jugs or plastic but select dairy farms have gone back to bottling their milk in glass, a novelty always consumer love.
Manufacturers have to take into consideration the amount of time the product might sit on the shelf before consumers purchase it.
Information regarding nutritional and content you will have to place somewhere on the packaging, which can interfere with the design if the packaging is too small. Being creative will acceptable types of materials is a great way to draw attention to your product.
8. To avoid printing and production costs, be creative:
Creating an attractive package that will attract customers without depending on expensive materials can be challenging, but innovative solutions can often help costs down and make for great packaging too.
So a major consideration, for any food packaging design, is the cost.
Thus, the cost of print and producing the package should not be more than the product itself. Here manufacturers on a budget might find themselves in a constant clash in trying to present an aesthetically appealing product to the public inexpensively.
However, with the variety of materials today, manufacturers have come up with creative ways to print and produce packages inexpensively.
9. Analyze with patterns and colors:
Bright colors will always attract the eye of consumers and so can change up the texture or pattern of the product. Different colors can influence different ways.
By analyzing the colors and patterns of the product, you can create an image in your consumers’ minds forever.
10. To showcase the Benefits of the Product, use the packaging:
One of the best ways to get the attention of consumers is to speak up about product benefits on the packaging by mentioning some of the product’s health benefits.
When a customer takes up a product that interests them, they mostly look to the packaging to tell them whether the product offers what they want.
Today’s consumers are conscious of the types of ingredients in the products being sold to them. To attract your packaging to the right sort of customers, it needs to showcase the best features of the food within. Any type of product designed to offer needs to be front and center on the packaging.
You can also check out this – “The ultimate guide to product packaging design“.
PIXIBIT DESIGN STUDIO has Designers to Help
Looking for an attractive and creative food packaging design for your products, then Pixibit design studio is the right place. Pixibit design studio is a package label design company in Rajkot, Gujarat, India. They provide updates on the latest labeling trends in different industries across the world and guide customers in developing the right label for their products.
Pixibit design studio provides truly integrated services to its customers for designing their products in every market segment. They design creative product labels to establish the brand identity of business products in the Indian market.
