5 Questions to Ask Yourself When Designing Packaging
Packaging design is a complex balancing act of design, marketing, and sales.
All of these need to come together to create the best solution for both product and brand.
Wondering where to start?
You’veve come to the right place.
Here are my top five questions to ask yourself when designing packaging so that your packaging solutions are the most effective they can possibly be.
1) What is the product?
Okay, this sounds like an obvious question, but it can be the most important one.
You need to understand as much detail about the physical qualities of the product as possible.
Is the product breakable?
Will it need more protection from bumps and knocks?
If your product has a particular finish or smell, you may want to show that off with a window or an opening.
Knowing this information helps to inform the physical attributes of your product’s packaging.
2) Who is the consumer?
A wise person once said ‘you cannot be all things to all people’… so don’t!
Packaging design works best when it is focused.
By conducting a careful analysis and getting to know your consumers and/or buyers, you can ensure that your design speaks to them in their language and on their terms, addressing their needs and desires clearly in a way that resonates with them.
3) Where will it be sold?
Every store is different, considering display arrangements and lighting styles.
Knowing how your product will be displayed or even positioned in the store can add some unique design parameters.
For example, some stores display primarily through hanging products — knowing this before designing packaging can affect the structural design of your solution.
If all of the weight of your box is to one side of the box, it is going to hang in a lopsided way in-store.
We love the satisfaction of straightening up that wonky family photo hanging on the wall, but imagine if it could never be straightened out.
Could you live with that?
I know I couldn’t.
4) Who is the competition?
We all know that differentiation is one of the keys to a best-selling product.
However, too much difference can be deadly.
Understanding the commonalities in your competition is one of the best ways to understand your marketplace — how it should or shouldn’t be done — giving you valuable insights into opportunities, but even more important, a greater understanding of category archetypes.
These are subconscious to the average consumer, but communicate key information about what the product is, simply through the silhouette of the package, colours used, or finishes.
For example, the use of kraft in packaging design has now become visual short-hand for hand-crafted, artisanal products.
5) How should we pack it?
Finally, it is time to think about what format your packaging will take.
There are four main packaging formats: pizza box, matchbox, one-piece box, and a two-piece box.
These are the foundations upon which all packaging designs are built upon.
Each one has its own physical limitation, due to the unique way that they each are assembled.
Don’t fret — with each limitation, there are opportunities to spark a little joy in your design.
For example, one-piece boxes have locking tabs, which are usually left blank, even though you are paying for it to be printed.
Why not use that space?
Add in some care instructions, brand promotions or social media links.
It’s these considerations that elevate your design from the others, adding value to that all-important unboxing experience.
These are the five basic things to understand when designing packaging.
They allow you to focus your design efforts, dramatically reducing the design phase of your project.
Here are some bonus things to consider that will take your packaging from good to great!
Bonus: Packaging materials
Your choice of materials can have a huge impact on both the look, but more importantly, the feel of your design.
We humans are kinesthetic creatures: we love to touch and play with anything we can (oo-er).
Use this knowledge to push your design further.
The choice of material can have a subtle but fundamental effect on the perceived value of your package design, and can be used to hint to the qualities of your brand and the product inside.
The cost and availability can vary from factory to factory.
It’s always best to ask for samples of materials where possible, to ensure that your factory is crystal clear on what you are trying to achieve.
There is a massive drive for more eco-friendly materials and processes, but supply is still catching up with demand.
Many of these new materials are only viable in small production runs, and are currently very specialist, but this will not be the case for very long, since factories in the East and closer to home will begin to meet the growing consumer demand for more sustainable packaging.
Your final packaging needs to both function and look great across its entire life cycle, from packing and shipping to sitting on the shelf in-store, and finally in the hands of your consumer.
Durability is one of the cornerstones of good packaging design.
Just think about how many times you’ve repurposed a nice piece of packaging for storing other items (shoutout to those using the KonMari method to organise your house).
One of the main factors to consider with durability is the physical weight of the product you are packaging.
You may need to test your product by conducting some drop tests.
Every packaging designer should be familiar with the mantra “to protect and inform”, and durability is the key to the first half of this.
Another bonus: Finishes
This goes hand-in-hand with your choice of materials: when they work together, it can lift your packaging design to a whole other level.
The right finish can increase perceived (and actual) value, and help catch the eye of consumers, encouraging interactions.
As with materials, durability is one of the main considerations in choosing finishes.
Some finishes are notorious for damaging, marking easily or looking dirty quickly (looking at you velvet lam/soft-touch).
Communication is key — speak to your factory about the best options for your product category and retail environment and request samples.
You need to know how it feels.
One last thing to consider with certain finishes is the conventions and trends within popular culture.
Many finishes are used in packaging design as part of a ‘current’ trend, but these can lose their effectiveness through overuse, becoming ‘normal’ to the average consumer.
In addition, the time it takes to respond to a current trend to create packaging can mean that the trend has died by the time the product hits the shelf.
Be mindful of the trends in your product category, and in adjacent categories, to stay ahead of the game.
Yet another bonus: Shape
This is one of the easiest ways to catch the eye of the consumer and draw them in.
If done correctly, it can even become as iconic to your brand as the product itself.
Think about the Coca-Cola bottle — these are now collector's items!
A unique packaging shape, however, comes with unique problems.
Unusual shapes can cause a massive headache for your factory: complex assembly, extra shipping support to prevent damages, weak structure points in the design.
If your design is not structurally sound, the failure rate can be high increase your overall costs.
You have been warned.
Okay, I can’t stop doing bonuses: Conventions
This is an overlooked aspect of prescriptive phase.
Understanding the long-standing conventions within your product category can build some of the biggest design parameters to focus your design.
Too much difference, however, and you run the risk of alienating your product from potential consumers.
We all know that differentiation is fundamental to the success of your product, as mentioned earlier.
There are usually reasons for traditional conventions, even ones that seem like ‘bad design’.
Conventions come in all forms, many of which we have already spoken about: shape, materials, finish, colour, even tone of voice.
It’s important to understand the established conventions to determine where the boundaries can be pushed for the betterment of your design.
Of course, you have to maintain certain category conventions to meet consumer expectations — you wouldn’t go looking for a box if you were after some crisps, you’d be looking for a foil packet on the shelf.
Consumers often make buying decisions on a subconscious level: “I like this one. Why? Because I do”.
Understanding conventions and how to leverage them can be a powerful tool when it comes to the design phase.
Conventions are partly linked to consumer trends, and many are connected to new techniques becoming affordable to manufacturers.
An example of this is the increased use of gold foiling on packaging.
This technique was once reserved for high-end products, portraying a more luxury look and feel.
The over-saturation of this technique has now devalued the impact on consumers — it doesn’t feel like a luxury when it’s everywhere.
The design purist in me wants to say, that the best way to stay ahead of trends is to avoid them.
However, this is not always possible, so my advice is to stay ahead by studying brands adjacent or similar to your category that target the same consumers.
You can absorb their visual language cues into your own design solution.
I hope this helps you create better packaging solutions that leap off the shelf and into your consumers’ lives.
I just wanted to say a massive thank you to all my sources of inspiration: Chris Do and the whole team at The Futur, David Brier, Blair Enns, Fabian Geyrhalter and Douglas Davis, just to name a few.
Not forgetting every source from my research-trawling of the internet.
Any questions let me know in the comments below.
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