Packaging design
Packaging that earns the pick-up on a crowded shelf, reads well on a phone screen, and comes with files your printer can run first time.
Required regulatory text placed correctly on every face, in files built to your printer's specs.
Packaging for
When to bring us in
You're launching a product or a new range.
What changesPacks designed as a family, so every variant is recognisably yours and easy to tell apart.
Your packaging no longer matches the brand around it.
What changesPackaging that carries the identity, from the front face to the side panel.
Your printer keeps sending files back.
What changesPrint-ready files built to your printer's specs, with dielines, bleed and colour values checked.
Shoppers walk past your pack without seeing it.
What changesA front face that says brand, variant and key claim in the few seconds a shopper gives it.
Regulatory text crowds out the design.
What changesRequired text planned into the layout from the start, placed correctly on every face.
Who it's for
FMCG, pharma, beauty and food brands launching a product, a new range or a redesign.
Not a fit if you need packs at the printer this week. A pack that works on the shelf needs an audit, concepts and revision rounds before the files go out.
What you get
Regulatory text on every face
You supply the text; we place it correctly on every face, planned into the layout from the start.
Shelf and competitor audit
Where your pack will sit, what's around it, and what a shopper notices first.
Concepts on shelf and screen
Each concept shown on the shelf and on a phone screen before you choose.
Label and copy layout
Brand, variant, key claim and the rest of the copy, in the order shoppers read it.
E-commerce and social mockups
Pack images for online listings and social posts.
Print-ready files built to your printer's specs
Dielines, bleed, colour values, outlined fonts and barcode sizing, checked before handover.
Want this for your brand? Send a short brief and we'll reply within one working day.
How it runs
Your brief, plus an audit of the shelf you'll compete on.
Packaging concepts built on your brand, shown on shelf and screen.
Two revision rounds on the chosen concept.
Your partPrint-ready files, handed to your printer.
A fixed-scope project, with the timeline set in your proposal. Two revision rounds per stage.
The shelf test
Three seconds, three answers.
A shopper gives a pack a few seconds, often from a distance and in poor light. In that time they look for three things, in order.
Whose is it? Which one is it? Why pick it up? We design the front face to answer those three before anything else, and test it the way shoppers will see it: from across the aisle, among competitors, and as a thumbnail on a phone.
Three seconds at the kiryana counter- 1BrandRecognised by colour and shape before the name is legible
- 2VariantWhich flavour, size or strength, told apart at a glance
- 3Key claimThe one reason to choose it, in a few words
From flat to shelf
Checked in every state it will be seen.
A pack is seen four ways before anyone buys it: flat at the printer, folded in the hand, on the shelf and on a phone.
We check the design in all four. Text that looks fine flat can wrap a corner badly once folded, and a pack that stands out on the shelf can disappear as a thumbnail in an online listing.
The thumbnail is the new shelfFlat
The dieline your printer cuts, every face laid out
Folded
Checked from every side, so nothing wraps a corner badly
On the shelf
Seen from a distance, among competitors
On a phone
A thumbnail in an online listing
Print-ready
Files your printer can run first time.
A file that comes back from the printer costs days. So every pack is checked against the same list before it leaves us.
We build to your printer's specs and answer their questions directly, so your procurement team isn't stuck relaying messages between us.
Regulatory copy as design materialBefore files go to print
- Dieline from your printer, confirmed before design starts
- Bleed and safe zones set on every face
- CMYK and Pantone values specified
- Barcode at a size that scans
- Fonts outlined and images at print resolution
- Regulatory text checked against the copy you supplied
- Printer's proof signed off before the run
Related work
From our writing on Packaging Design
All Packaging Design articles
Five signs your packaging is costing you sales
Packaging problems rarely announce themselves. These five signs usually do.
Three seconds at the kiryana counter: packaging for shelves you will never control
Most Pakistani purchases happen in small shops where the brand controls nothing. Packaging has to work anyway.
The thumbnail is the new shelf: packaging that has to sell at 120 pixels
Online, your pack is a small square in a grid of competitors. It has to work there before it works in a hand.
Want work like this for your brand? Tell us what you're planning.
Why a studio, not a freelancer or a hire?
Either can be the right call. This is what changes when the work sits with a team.
Questions about Packaging Design
Will you work with our printer?
Yes. We build files to their specs and answer their questions directly.
Do you write the regulatory text?
You supply it; we place it correctly on every face.
Can you design a whole range?
Yes. A range is designed as a family: one system, with each variant easy to tell apart.
Can you redesign our packaging without losing the customers who know it?
Yes. We start from what shoppers already recognise, such as the colour, the shape and where the logo sits, and decide what to keep before changing anything.
Do you design for online stores too?
Yes. Every concept is checked on a phone screen, and you get mockups for listings and social posts.
Do you work from our existing brand guidelines?
Yes. Packaging is built on your identity. If you don't have one yet, start with Branding & Identity.
What do you need from us to start?
Your brief, the regulatory text, your printer's dieline and specs if you have them, and product samples or photos.
Do you shoot the product too?
Yes, through Video & Motion.
Often paired with
Branding & Identity
Logo, colour, type and voice, built into guidelines your team and your printer can actually follow.
Learn moreIdeas need good company.
Tell us about the product you're packaging.
Send a short brief. We'll reply within one working day with next steps, or an honest note if we're not the right fit.