Designing packaging is tough, there’s no denying it. Unfortunately many companies leave this vital task until right at the end of the product development process, and may rush through it. There are a number of mistakes people make when designing product packaging. Make sure you are on the right track by avoiding these common pitfalls:
- Going Over the Top
It is great to be creative but often the less you put on a package, the better. If you try to put too much information on the product, or you aim for a very complex design, it may backfire as people don’t notice of care about the extra embellishments.
- Failing to Plan for the Future
You may be designing the box for a fruit cereal now, but what happens if you then decide to launch a fruit cereal bar in the future? Will your packaging design be able to stretch to another product by working with similar characteristics and creating a new product package that is immediately identifiable as your brand? You should design with your future products in mind by creating packaging and custom boxes that can work for other products simply with a slight shift in emphasis.
- Trying to Do It Alone
You wouldn’t represent your company in a law court if you weren’t confident of your legal skills, so why design your own packaging if you have limited design skills? It is not worth cutting corners and trying to do it yourself if you have no idea of what you are doing. Draw on the expertise of packaging design companies turn your ideas into packaging reality that works for your products.
- Ignoring Typography
Don’t have your text so small that people will strain to read it on a shelf. Cut any unnecessary words so you are left with clear design and a clear message. And look at what the font you use says about your brand and the product.
- Forget About Personality
It is important to think about message, content, and the function of packaging but don’t forget that your packaging is the ideal way to inject a little of your brand’s personality onto the shelves. Don’t do exactly what others are doing. Create something that stands out and will draw the eye to your product.
- Forget About the Competition
But while it is important to stand out, it is also important to fit within the accepted conventions of product design in your industry. You want to stand out but you also want people to relate to you and feel confident picking you when they are comparing like with like on the shelves. If you are too quirky many people won’t try your product as they feel they cannot trust it.