Creating great food packaging design.

We’ve been lucky enough to have worked with many food producers over the last two decades.

One thing that everyone has in common is the passion and dedication that they have to create a great product that their customers will love.

Our passion is equal but ours is to create great branding and packaging that looks great, is attractive to the target market, allows the product to be tried and tested and sells product.

Based on our experience we have put together 10 tips to help you create a great food packaging design for your product.

1. Format

Think about the constraints of the product. How does it need to be packaged and stored? Does it need to be chilled? If the product is a liquid, should the bottle be glass or could it be in a carton?

2. Brand elements

Don’t underestimate the power of having brand elements that are unique to your brand or product. Try to avoid royalty-free images or clip art style illustrations as much as possible, as unique is better for brand longevity.

3. The target market

Who have you created your product for and why? What will attract them to your product and encourage them to give the product a try? What are the key messages that your product will need to get across very quickly?

4. Competition

What other products are there in the marketplace that are similar to your product and aimed at your target market? Analyse them and look for points of differences to your product; identify what they do well and what not so well, and how your product compares.

food packaging

5. Style

Do you have an existing brand style that your packaging design needs to follow and be consistent with, or is this a standalone product? Is the focus on the style to be eye-catching or more subtle? Is there a range of flavours that need to be produced and those flavours represented in the packaging style?

6. Finishing

The finishing of a packaging design can help to portray different types of products. Artisan products can have hand-written labels or tags to portray a hand-made product for example as well as printing onto uncoated or recycled materials. There are a few other print finishes that can enhance product’s tactile feeling such as matt lamination or spot UV varnishes that can be used to highlight particular elements of a design such as logos or images to make them more noticeable.

7. Stockists

Just like you must consider the target market for a product, it’s important to consider where you want the product to be stocked, and what type of products are currently on the shelves of those stockists. You want them to happily stock your products, so they will expect your product to look and taste great, sit well on their shelves, not look out of place and most importantly give the stockists the confidence that it will sell.

8. Tone of voice

You won’t get the opportunity to stand next to your products and explain them or attract potential buyers, so your products need to do that work for you.

9. Think it through

Don’t underestimate the power of good packaging design to sell a product. It doesn’t need to cost the earth, but well thought through, well designed and well-executed brand design and packaging can really sell a product, then, if the product tastes great too, the customer will return and also make recommendations.

10. Get it right first time

You rarely get a second chance. It’s worth the investment to get your packaging designed professionally from the start and hit the ground running.

We love to work with food producers to create their packaging design, as we’re passionate foodies here at Toast and that matched with our passion for great and compelling design, we have the right ingredient to create great food packaging.

Creating great food branding and packaging is as essential as selecting the correct ingredients to create the product.

It should be carefully considered, developed and chosen to ensure it’s right for that particular product and the target market; you wouldn’t wish to scrimp on the ingredients to make the product so why would you when it comes to the visual representation of the product?

If you have a food product that you need great packaging design for, get in touch with us, we’d love to work with you. Call us today on 01295 26 66 44 or click on the link below to request a quote.

Chris Tymon

Chris Tymon

Chris is a founding Creative Director at Toast and works across Food Branding and design work for clients in the food sector.

Menu
Top