Packaging Design for Your Product: Where to Start
How to make sure you are ready to jump into the design phase
Packaging design is an area I am very passionate about (maybe you can tell) it’s also an area that can be a bit of a minefield as a business owner. To ensure you can hit the ground running I’d suggest giving this an in-depth read and ensure you have made decisions on all of the below or have them in place to ensure a seamless process and no delays in having your packaging bought to life.
What does your packaging solution look like?
So what form is your packaging going to take?
Does it need to be a pouch, box, bottle or even just a label on a jar? I’m sure you’ve thought about this, but it’s important to know what direction you want to go down to ensure there are clear deliverables for a designer to be able to estimate a cost to complete the design side of things. As you can imagine the work that goes into a label versus a box or pouch can differ quite a lot.
Barcodes
You might think you’re starting out small but who said you can’t aim high? If you have big goals and growth plans it would be silly not to include barcodes from the get-go to ensure you are ready for the supply chain when and if that is a route you want to go down. GS1 are the powers in this space, check those guys out here. They will supply you with barcode numbers, unique to your product that a designer can generate the barcodes for. Doing this step when you are having your packaging designed will eliminate a need to either make a change to your packaging to include it later or for you to produce stickers to manually add it yourself to existing packaging. If you can save time and money or even both whilst future-proofing yourself why would you not?
Dielines
There’s a misconception a lot of people find out when they start this journey that a box or solution exists for your very product, an off-the-shelf type thing. Let me tell you that is not the case. Packaging unless it’s in label form which is a simple shape you can prototype yourself nearly always requires a dieline to work that is customised for your specifications. A dieline is a technical drawing that is then produced into a die which is usually a bit of wood with very sharp metal blades that cut out your packaging to that shape after it is printed.
Now not just anyone should be producing dielines and unless they’re specialists in dieline creation it’s not a task a designer should be undertaking, those who make these have high technical knowledge of folds, cuts, how cardboard reacts etc. It’s hugely technical and best left to the experts. The drawing they create however is what a designer needs in order to layout the design of your packaging. So it’s important to avoid delays to have this prior to engaging with a designer. Work cannot begin without it.
Labels and things are less complicated and won’t require intricate dielines, pouches etc. usually come in somewhat regular sizes and your producer should have templates for the design they can supply you with that you can pass on to your designer to ensure a smooth process. If you’re local to Christchurch the best guys in the business for all box-style prototyping and diecutting pay Al a visit at Custom Cutting Formes.
If this is something you’re keen to hear more about take read of this great article GSM put together on the skill of designing cardboard packaging.
An example of artwork on a dieline.
