There was a time when product packages were just a container and labels were meant only for specifying the product details. The changing market has now put many additional responsibilities on those in-charge of product packaging design and labeling of a company. Product packages along with their labels now have the important responsibility of attracting the customers. They are expected to speak for themselves and lure the customers in picking them up from the store shelf.

This increased responsibility of product packages and labels finally lands on the shoulders of graphic designers. They are required to put all their creativity into designing a product package that can work as a salesperson for the product. Every graphic designer knows the importance of product packaging and label design very well. Therefore, they are always in search of tips and tricks for making their design more attractive for the customers.


Tip 1. Make It Useable

Nothing can be better than making a product package usable in ways more than it is meant to be. A product package will make the product memorable if it remains useful for the customer even after the product has been used. 

For Example: The new Gems chocolate packaging design is a ball filled with Gems, and that is a useful package for its ultimate consumers – children. Once a child knows that he will get a ball to play after eating Gems, he will always want to buy it. Not only children but adults too like gaining double benefits wherever they can get. By making a package usable, you can attract customers by showing them the double benefit.


Tip 2. Make It Product Friendly

Every package is meant for a particular product only. So, it should be designed in a way that it shows its friendly relation with the product. If a package does not reflect its complementary relationship with the product, it can really hamper the product’s sales. Ketchup always created a problem for the user when they came in glass bottles.

Heinz introduced its compressible upside-down package for ketchup, and its sales hiked many folds just because of the complimentary packaging design. Thus, you need to come up with creative and product-friendly package design ideas for your product.


Tip 3. Launch Some Special Editions

Impulse buying is considered a bad habit for consumers, but when you are on the sellers’ side, you must promote impulse buying. Stay tuned to the market, introduce some limited edition of packaging related to whatever is trending. To take an example; if it is the FIFA season, then introduce a limited edition of football-related creative packaging to promote impulse buying among football lovers.


Tip 4. Break the Rules the Right Way

Coming out of the conventional rules to break the monotony is always a good idea. But while breaking the rules, stay conscious to go in the right direction. Almost all industries have some predefined rules. For example, shoes come in carton boxes, toothpastes come in a tube so on and so forth.

If you can change the rule of your industry and come up with an innovative packaging, then your product will never go unnoticed. But while breaking the rule, it is imperative to make sure you are not ruining the complementary relation between the product and its package.


Tip 5. Keep It Simple and Hassle-Free

While doing a creative work like creating a product package or designing a label, remember the rule – less is more! It is good to be creative while designing but beware of the glitch of overdoing. The package, as well as its label, should be clean and simple. Keeping the label clean does not mean hiding the required information. Give all relevant information on your product package but don’t make it too artistic.


Tip 6. Be In Line with Market Trends

In this social media generation, there are lots of things that create hype and become trendy. Stay updated about those trends, and incorporate them into your package and label design. Use those hypes created by movies and media to boost your products’ sales. Consumers get attracted to your product when you jump in the trend thus increasing the sales volume of your product.


Tip 7. Be Empathetic to Consumer While Designing A Package

When you start creating a product package, you should think from a consumer’s perspective before letting the designer in you to take the charge. Think about the expectation a consumer may have with your product. Take for example things like chips and biscuits.

As a consumer, you must have wanted to be able to close the packet after eating it half and save it for later. What if you can make a re-sealable packet? Consumers will love the package, and this will automatically increase your sales.


Tip 8. Include Some Humor

There’s no rule that binds you from being humorous with your customers. You don’t have to keep your product package and labels straightforward. You can always introduce some humor to your product packaging to develop a friendly relation with your customers. Including humour will, in fact, attract customers to your product.


Tip 9. Make It Fun

Hanger tea-bags are one of the first things that will come to your mind when you think of this. These tea-bags are in a shape of a t-shirt with a hanger. The t-shirt is your actual tea-bag while the hanger makes it easier to hang the tea-bag on the edge of the cup.

The idea is not only making it easier for the customers to use the product, but also doing it in a fun way. Create your product packaging in a way that it makes it fun to use the product. Apart from the product itself, consumers will start buying it for the fun part.


Tip 10. Compete with the Product

Let your package and label compete with the product. Your product and package are inseparable like body and soul, so there’s nothing to worry about the loser or the winner. I’ve seen many cooking lovers buying a certain brand of readymade spice because of the different recipes they get on the package. I personally believe that all matchsticks are similar and so I prefer a brand that comes with a new matchstick puzzle on its every box.


Tip 11. Make It Easy to Handle

The ease of handling is a very important feature of any product packaging. Give a handle or grooves depending on the product to make it easy for the customer to carry and use it. If your packaging is not handy, the customers are sure to look for other options in the market. So, you cannot afford to have a product package that is not handy unless your product has a monopoly over the market.


Tip 12. Choose Colors that Can Help the Package Stand Out

Color of a package is a very important element of the whole design. So, you should choose your package color very carefully. It should be bright and loud enough to attract customers to its shelf. At the same time, it should also be easy on the eyes.

When a customer enters the aisle of a supermarket, your product package should be clearly recognizable from other competing products. Furthermore, the label of the product should also be legible that a person can know the product’s name and its brand with just one look.


Tip 13. Keep It Transparent

Transparency is always a good thing. If your package can innovatively showcase the product it is carrying, it can win hearts of many customers. There are lots of packages in the market that have the picture of the product contained within it.

Instead of making the illustration of chips on the packet you can leave some transparent space to give the consumer a glimpse of the real chips. Instead of writing the name of the colour and the code of the lipstick, keep the package transparent to show the real shade of the lipstick. Be transparent with your customers and let your product be visible.


Tip 14. Don’t Forget the Original Responsibility

While thinking of the ideas to make it attractive to customers don’t forget its real responsibility, i.e. keeping the product safe. Edible things need air-tight packaging so you cannot pack them directly in a loose carton box just to be different from others.

Be innovative but keep in mind your package should not affect the shelf life of your product in a bad way. Keeping the product safe and good to use is the foremost purpose of any package everything else is secondary. No one will buy the most beautiful and creative package if it cannot keep its content safe and usable.


Tip 15. Don’t Ruin the Scope of Extensibility

You never know when your product booms the market and you start feeling the need to extend your product range. So it is always advisable to keep the scope of extensibility in your product packaging. A good package is always made with the future in mind. You can argue here that you’ll create a new package design for your new product.

But as per the practical market rules, you cannot do that without hampering your sales volume. It is easier to launch a new product in a similar packaging as the old one because of the customers’ trust. It is illogical to make a completely new package and start from the scratch to build customers when you already have a customer base for one of your product.


Thus, it won’t be much to say poor packaging can dramatically affect your product’s selling, so always strive to create a successful package design. If you have any other tips to make impressive packaging and label design, feel free to share it with us.

For more information on DesignHill, visit designhill.com/logo-design.