Packaging design

Packaging is the first physical contact with a brand — the one touchpoint the customer literally holds in their hands. From material and form to colour, texture and hierarchy, it speaks to several senses at once and builds an expectation before the product is even opened.

The three distances of packaging

Packaging works at three distances at once: from five metres it has to be recognised, from fifty centimetres it has to persuade, and in the hand it has to justify the price. A design that wins only one of the three loses on the shelf.

That is why we start from what the shopper looks for first. On a pot of yoghurt, that is the fat content and what milk it is made from (cow's, sheep's or goat's) — not yet another cow that blends in with the fifty others on the shelf. The order in which the eye meets that information is the pack's information architecture.

More than graphics

Packaging is rarely just graphics. The material, the weight, the sound it makes when it opens and how easily it closes again are all part of the same message. Sow&Soul — a self-initiated CBD packaging project made in 48 hours — was an exercise in exactly how quickly you reach a clear solution when the direction is chosen early. That is why we ask about the printer, the material and the print run right at the start — the constraints shape the solution as much as the idea does.

What it looks like when it works

Two packs can be worlds apart depending on the audience and the feeling we are after. Berenica is calm, clean and informative, with a clear hierarchy of information — for a category that has to be trusted. Zver is bold, with an original logotype and mascot illustrations — in a style unheard of in Bulgaria at the time, which built huge anticipation around the brand. And when a brand has many products, the packaging becomes a SKU system, as with Dulmone: the system sets what stays the same across all products and what changes, so a new line can be added without designing from scratch.

Related terms: Packaging information architecture, SKU design system, Print materials.