What is an Ideal Packaging Design Process?

Americans can’t seem to agree on anything these days. Yet, about 72% of them agree that product packaging design and materials influence their purchases.

That’s how important product packaging is to your business, but it’s often the last thing you think about. You spend the rest of the time on product development.

If you want to create a product that sells, you have to learn the product packaging design process. Fortunately, this article has you completely covered.

Keep reading to discover the steps of the package design process to your products fly off of the shelves.

1. Research and Project Planning

This is where your team does intense research about your ideal market. Find out what they value in your products and how you can incorporate those elements in the design process.

At this stage, you may want to enlist the help of a package design firm. A firm’s packaging design portfolio should be similar to what you want to achieve.

The firm can assist with ideas, planning, and initial concepts.

Be sure to research the impact of ecommerce on your industry. Online spending increased by $900 billion over the last couple of years.

You need to make sure your products stand out on digital shelves as well as retail shelves.

2. Design Concepts

From the research, the team creates initial design concepts. These concepts include the logo, colors, and fonts to be used.

This may include a dieline, which is a 2D rendering of the package design. This shows the folds and cutlines of the package design. These renderings must be free of errors because they will eventually get sent to printing.

Any issues and they’ll become expensive mistakes.

3. Copy and Legal Assessment

A graphic designer takes over and works with you to develop the package copy. The main messages, barcodes, instructions, and legal information are added to the package design.

Barcodes and consumer information are listed as well. This needs to go through a legal check to ensure that the package meets all federal and state consumer safety laws.

Review and validate the package design. Make any adjustments to the design and copy.

4. Sample Press

At this stage of the design process, the product packaging goes through a small test run. This is a prototype of the design.

You can test it with your ideal customers and focus groups. Learn what they appreciate about the design and if there’s anything they don’t like.

You may need to make additional tweaks to the design. It’s worth it when you have a design the people have to pick up and buy.

5. Finalize and Print

At the end of the design process, you’re ready to finalize the product packaging. It gets sent to the printer and ready to hit the store shelves.

You may need to revisit the design process periodically to refresh the product packaging.

A Guide to the Product Packaging Design Process

That’s the product packaging design process. You just learned how to go from idea to a tangible product on the store shelves.

If you enjoyed this article, you’ll love the other articles on the blog. Check them out today!