A pack is a brand you can pick up. For many small businesses it is the first thing a customer sees, and often the only thing they handle before deciding whether to buy. Good packaging design starts with the brand behind the product, not with the shape of the box.
Start with the brand, then the box
If your identity is already strong, packaging should apply it with care: the same logo, colours, typography and tone of voice, adapted to labels, sleeves, boxes and bags. If the brand is still being formed, it is far cheaper to settle the identity first than to redesign the packaging later.
The same thinking applies to a range. When products have grown up one at a time, a consolidation can bring them together while keeping the elements customers already recognise. That protects the loyalty you have built, which is the main risk in any redesign.
What a packaging brief should cover
A short, clear brief saves rounds of revisions. Before you speak to a designer, write down the answers to these questions:
- Who buys the product, and where do they see it first: on a shelf, online or as a gift?
- What must the pack say in the first few seconds, and what can wait for the back panel?
- Which information is mandatory, such as ingredients, warnings, barcodes or batch details?
- What are the format, stock and budget limits, including quantities?
- Which competitors sit beside you, and how should you look different?
Our process follows four stages: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver. The direction is agreed in writing before design starts, and concepts are shown on the real pack shape rather than a flat drawing, so you can judge them as a customer would. Our guide to briefing a branding agency covers the wider brief in more detail.
Getting artwork print-ready
Packaging fails most often in production, not in design. Correct dielines, bleed, colour set for the stock and press, and mandatory panels all need checking before anything goes to print. We prepare artwork to the converter’s cutter guide and check proofs before the run, so the finished pack matches what you approved.
It also helps to think beyond the main pack. Labels, sleeves, shelf wobblers and display units all carry your brand, and they work best when they are designed together. We have done this for clients such as Eimear Wright, where candle and reed diffuser boxes, labels and shopping bags were designed as one luxury fragrance range.
Planning new packaging or a range refresh? Get in touch or email info@designminds.ie for a free consultation and a fixed written quotation.
