So how do you go about creating the perfect packaging design? Something that draws the consumer in and allows them to navigate all your products and portfolio with ease. Importantly, packaging that conveys why your product is better than the competition.

Here are our golden rules for creating the best, most perfect packaging design for your brand.

1. Be single-minded:

If you are launching a product with an array of consumer benefits it’s always wise to focus on one ‘killer claim’ rather than try to hammer home absolutely everything on the front of pack. This just creates visual clutter and confusion for consumers.

Consumers only spend around 3-4 seconds make up their minds when scanning a pack, so it is important to get the key messaging across in the most efficient way possible.

2. Be different:

Communicating your core unique selling point is paramount for any brand. It’s no good shouting that you are the tastiest food product out there. Wouldn’t every brand want to say that? I mean, try thinking of a brand that shouts “Hi everyone, we’re quite average!”

Focus on what you do best. It could be an ingredient, the way it is made or a service that only you offer.

3. Don’t be afraid of the blank bits:

Negative space is good. It’s your friend. Create a perfect moment of calm on pack to let your brand colour shine through and pop on shelf. Don’t default to automatically trying to wedge some claim / comment / benefit /offer into any gaps just because it looks like you have space.

4. Own the shelf:

It is paramount that any new design you implement works at fixture. Allocating a large portion of the pack to the brand colour or logo creates impactful signposting and draws the consumers eye.

If you are trying to shoehorn too much onto the pack, you risk disappearing into the shelf with the myriad of messages from the rest of the competition.

This doesn’t mean removing other salient pieces of information, remember a pack is a three-dimensional item, there are multiple faces on which to convey messages and introduce a hierarchy of information.

5. Be consistent:

Wherever a logo or pack element is recreated on other products, size and positioning should be kept consistent. This uniformity creates instant recognition and authority and provides powerful blocking at fixture. If you allocate 30% of the pack to the brand logo, try to keep this relationship across all products in the portfolio.

6. Follow nature:

There are plenty of examples in nature and also classic architecture where the golden ratio has been maintained. The golden ratio details the perfect proportions and positioning of elements in relation to one another.

Whether it’s the spiral of a seashell, or the curling shoots of a seedling, these powerful principles dictate much of natures beauty and have been adopted throughout the centuries in classical architecture, painting and are even seen in facial symmetry.

7. Direct your cast.

The elements of your pack are like actors on a stage. Each has a valuable role to play at different points in the performance. Packs need to work efficiently in 2 fields of view; from a distance as the consumer approaches the shelf and close up when they pick it up. Entice first, Educate second.

You can see some examples of how we have utilised the above to create the perfect packaging design, here.