6 Basic Rules for Designing Packages

Product packaging, as well as the design, is growing into a huge industry by itself. Many leading companies like Landor and CBA rely heavily on their graphic designers to create robust, bold, eye-catching product and shipping boxes to sell their products. According to the Food Market Institute, there are currently over 40,000 products in the average supermarket in the USA alone, and yours needs to stand above the rest to sell. We will be covering the top six packaging design rules in this article.

1. Be Practical

In the packaging design world, practicality means the shape, color, and functionality of the package. Consumers like functional packaging and the more functional a brand's packaging are, the more products that will sell. This important point is one of the most overlooked points in packaging design. Take shipping boxes, for example, they have a simple layout, but are almost instantly recognizable.

2. Ease of Extension

Any product design should think about extendability. Brands change and add sub groups all the time, and you should keep this in mind when you design the packaging. You want an easy, versatile design that can translate to several different categories.

3. Standing Out on the Shelf

You should consider that your consumer will rarely if ever, see the product alone or by itself on a shelf. Your packaging has to stand out against thousands of other products, and this is called shelf impact. The more your product stands out, the better it's going to sell. You should test several options with a small test group of family or friends to see which design catches their eye and makes them take a closer look.

4. Be Authentic

Your product is surrounded all day, every day by competitors products. You will need an authentic, bold design to stand out amongst the masses. For example, if all the other packaging is designed to sit horizontally, make your packaging vertical. This will make it stand out and catch the customer's eye.

5. Be Honest

Your aim with being honest is to make the packaging represent the product inside. If you depict a perfect product, the product inside better be perfect. Consumers will feel cheated and be less likely to buy it again if they're disappointed by the actual product because it didn't match up to the packaging. The consumer expects the packaging to look a little better than the original product, but still stay true to what the product is.

6. Be Simple and Clear

Your packaging should be able to convey two things at a quick glance:

1. What is the product used for?
2. Which brand made the product?

Your packaging has approximately four seconds to convey this to the consumer. That is the maximum time someone browsing will dedicate to looking at any one product. If they can find both of those things at a quick glance, they are more likely to purchase the product. Some products have room for a little mystery, but more mainstream brands don't have that luxury. If your packaging fails to deliver on these two basic design elements, it has a better chance of failing. 

If all of these points are kept in mind next time you start designing a package, you should be able to create a bold product that will stand out.