To make customers love the product, you must first satisfy their eyes.
It’s the same principle when it comes to restaurants. Chefs take a lot of time to make their dishes presentable. That’s because the eyes need loving too.
Designing packaging for a product is simple, but the process itself is tricky. How can you create something new and unique when there are already thousands of other similar products on the market?
Before you think about what you should do for your packaging, you should first check if you’re making any of these major mistakes first.
1. Over-Packaging
Really, the last thing people want is to spend their precious time opening the packaging of something they bought.
You should make the product packaging as simple as possible. Of course, you shouldn’t make it too simple that the packaging becomes flimsy. Stick to what people have been used to with regards to the overall packaging design.
Over-packaging also refers to adding too many elements on the design. It’s the same principle when designing a website. It should be clean and simple but more than enough to keep the customers satisfied.
2. Printing Errors
Double, triple, and quadruple check your design before you have it printed. Typographical and grammatical errors make your packaging look unprofessional.
If a typo is bad enough, you can definitely count that it’s going to be viral. It seems like trivial work but it’s very important that you do this. If any typo gets in the way of your product design, people are going to think that the designer didn’t take enough time to do it at all.
Another downside to this is that the attention will be on the error instead of the product itself.
3. Impractical Shape
The shape of the final product should be nice and easy to store. Don’t try to stand out too much in a sense that you create packaging that’s completely unlike everything else.
For starters, this is problematic when it comes to shipping and logistics. Ideally, the entire package should be easy to store and ship. Make sure that the dimensions are more than enough to keep the product safe. Of course, it shouldn’t be so small that there’s so much space inside for the product to bump in to.
4. Misleading Design
People hate it when marketers and companies outright lie to them. That’s why when adding an image of the product to the packaging, you should make sure that the image you’re using is as accurate as possible.
It would be best if you ask the company for actual images of the product that you can use for the design.
5. Not Being Aware Of Packaging Trends
It’s always a good idea to be updated about the latest trends when it comes to product packaging.
For instance, 80s/90s nostalgia are pretty popular in graphic design nowadays. It would be wise to follow this trend and to create some product packaging that signals the aesthetics of that era. Keep in mind that trends come and go pretty quickly.
Make sure that you’re always updated.
Designing a packaging for a product is a challenging but rewarding line of work. It’s something that you should practice regularly as it can be a great addition to your portfolio.
Once you begin avoiding these mistakes, you’ll be surprised at how great you can be when it comes to creating eye-catching and efficient packaging in the future.