Shopping and dating share a common feature: at first, it’s all about appearance. The look decides what (or who) you feel attracted to. It doesn’t always need to be the famous love at first sight, but an attractive appearance raises the chances of both finding a partner as well as putting a product in your (virtual) shopping cart.
Especially in retail your brand must represent an image and attract attention for your product to make it stand out from the crowd. A unique packaging design can be a helpful tool for inducing a potential customer to have a closer look at your product and buy it eventually.
In times of growing environmental consciousness not only the product itself is a buying decision criterion, manufacturers also draw attention to the packaging. Apart from design, shape, fonts and icons the material plays an important role. Sustainability both in regards of origin (renewable resources) and recycling is increasingly focused which is why you will find the entire range of packagings with:
minimal material use
long life cycle (e.g. glass)
FSC certified boxes
mono material with better recycling rates than composite material
Depending on your distribution channel, size also matters a great deal. If your products shall be sold in a grocery store, you have to consider the limited space on the shelves and the competition with other products about it. Also, transportation is a crucial factor of packaging, because it needs to ensure an undamaged delivery.
As in fashion, packaging design is following ever changing trends. For several years now, there has been a tendency towards minimalism and it’s statement “less is more” which puts focus on simple fonts and reduced colors. In future, we expect labels and designs to be simple and partly transparent and also referring to nature elements.
On the opposite, the color blocking trend is widely used in fashion since 2019 and creatively implemented in packaging design by using gradient or complementary colors. A basic black-and-white design on structured material makes your product look particularly sophisticated. Good news for fans of illustrations: they will still be a popular element, but this year you should choose 2D over 3D icons and avoid shadow effects or highlights.
Is there a particular packaging design that you prefer?
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