Marketers have done a pretty good job training consumers to recognize visual signals on packaging. Green indicates freshness, white cues purity, hand-rendered typography means a product is “artisan” and so on. But what happens when most consumer packaged goods companies play by the same rules in the packaging playbook? It’s a recipe for uniformity.
Yes, brand owners need to understand the science of packaging design; yes, it’s wise to respect the visual norms across your brand’s category so you don’t throw the consumer for a loop. But packaging is as much an art as a science, and the art lies in the balance between what’s expected and what’s distinctive.