Consumers appreciate good packaging. People say you should never judge a book by its cover, but when it comes marketing your new product des, what you see outside is equally important as what lies inside. Big companies understand this all too well, and they are likely willing to go a long way to come up with enticing packaging designs that appeal to their target demographics. If you wish to compete with well-known brands, every single detail of the product, including the packaging design, requires a great deal of attention.
Product quality does play the biggest role in determining a company’s success, but product packaging is an element that convinces consumers to make the purchase in the first place. A study conducted by AdAge showed that the majority of customers (about 64 percent) were willing to purchase a product off the shelf if they liked the packaging despite having no knowledge about or prior experience with the product.
RELATED: 12 Tips to Create the Best Product Packaging Design
The study by prototype design firms also revealed that more than 72 percent of customers rarely used their mobile devices for online research to learn more about the products they were about to buy when shopping. Considering the strong tendency of smartphone usage for just about every purpose nowadays, it was quite a shocking insight.
In other studies, AdAge found that packaging design was among the strongest forces behind repeat purchases; stronger than online reviews and TV ads. In other words, there is more to packaging than what meets the eye. Here are some compelling reasons why packaging is more influential than it may seem:
- Eye-catching packaging grabs people’s attention: Sitting on a shelf full of similar products of different brands, your new product design has more of a chance of attracting customers if it is has packaging that stands out from the crowd.
- Consistent design is recognizable: Although it is refreshing to see new product packaging every now and then, people feel comfortable with purchasing products from a brand they’re familiar with. It does not mean the packaging needs to remain the same for years; it simply has to be consistent in color choice, graphics, typography, materials, and shape.
- Packaging as protection: Consumers want to buy a product that retains the same look, shape, and overall quality from the moment it leaves the factory to the time they use the product for the first time. A strong material designed in such a way sparks confidence in buyers’ mind when they make the purchase.
- Communicate the company’s value: The design of a packaging communicates the values that a company holds, such as luxury, affordability, sustainability, craftsmanship, history, or practicality. For example, the 3D modeling company that designs its product packaging from rigid metal most likely reflects seriousness in business, while one that uses recycled materials communicates efficiency.
- Artistic touch to a product: Even if the product is mass-produced, an artistic element on the packaging brings the sense of natural touch. The world is not entirely “function over form” and consumers always welcome a few elaborate details.
Depending on the type of product, sometimes it is difficult to include all the elements above in a single packaging, but fortunately, you don’t have to. There are three layers of packaging, and you can use them all if need be:
- Outer layer: The very first thing consumers see. It can be a wooden box, plastic container, tin can, a bag, or any other item that wraps a product.
- Inner layer: Another type of packaging that consumers have to open before they can see or use the actual product. You may want to use cardboard, plastic, or a cloth to give additional protection.
- Main layer: It is the wine bottle, the lipstick tube, the toothpick wrapper of packaging. It is a container inside a container.
Some CAD services companies use all three layers to ensure the best protection and provide additional touch of intricacy for their products, while others use only two (rarely one) layers only to serve all purposes.
20 Product packaging design blogs to use as inspiration
When it is time to design packaging yet you find it hard to come up with fresh ideas, there are blogs that you can turn to. The following list has 20 online resources you can use as inspiration to make your own packaging.
The Dieline
Started as a modest blog that’s run and maintained single-handedly by a man named Andrew Gibbs, The Dieline has grown to be one of the most-visited online resources that focus on packaging design. Now it also hosts a design conference and competition on an annual basis.
An important key behind its popularity is simplicity. Straightforwardness has become a trademark in the way it highlights some of the best product packagings all around the world and promotes a deeper understanding of the importance of great design for companies.
BP&O
Richard Brain, an editor for The Dieline, is the person behind Branding, Packaging & Opinion. The content is not as frequently updated as the former, but the quality is comparable. Packaging design remains the overall theme of the blog and you will also find discussions about the design industry in general.
It is a good place if you are interested in the story behind a packaging design process rather than just browsing thumbnail images. That being said, you can go to the Collection page to explore curated and updated galleries of logos, business cards, prints, and even architecture design components.
Brand Packaging
In this blog, you are spoiled with multiple galleries of FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) packaging designs in different categories such as Household, Beauty, Health, and Foods. The blog even provides a categorization of packaging materials so you have a different place to find content regarding paperboard, glass, plastic, metal, etc. Each category is filled with various examples and the back story behind every design. Or you can just go to the Design Gallery to get a quick look at packaging designs and summarized information about them.
Packaging of the World
To say that Packaging of the World serves as a one-stop shop for design inspirations is an understatement. You can think of it as a design archive that has spent many years compiling some of the nicest and most attractive packaging designs created by students and professionals. The card-based layout is pleasing on the eyes, the pages are easy to navigate, and the content is easy to read. Each card is a preview of a collection of high-quality images and concise information about them.
Trending Packaging
The blog is all about packaging. It has a great layout that’s easy to navigate and you even get the chance to submit a packaging design of yours to contribute. Trending Packaging offers samples and a short analysis to give you ideas on how to create your own design as well.
Packaging Europe
As the name suggests, the blog covers nearly everything worth knowing about packaging across the European continent. It provides not only a healthy dose of unique packaging examples but also important news and recent issues to broaden your horizon about the industry in general. You will find interviews with professional marketing experts of various brands, European packaging tradeshows, technologies behind packaging designs, and detailed reports of many hot packaging topics. The blog is based in the UK.
A strong driving force behind most designs is that it has to impress others. This is where the blog comes in. Print Magazines gives in-depth insight and tips by popular designers on what you can do to earn a high spot in the industry.
Behance
When it comes to digital creativity, Adobe is arguably the most reputable name of them all. It is the industry’s behemoth for which Behance serves as an online showcase platform. Behance can be very daunting due to its wide-ranging collection of creative works, but thankfully, it provides a simple navigational tool to search for specific categories. For example, packaging, branding, and logos. Click on the Curated Galleries section and choose Packaging from the available options. Each design featured also gives a short write-up of the story behind the idea.
Dezeen
Not only does the post provide high-quality images of the packaging itself, but it also comes with analysis and commentary. Dezeen doesn’t specialize only in packaging design, so it is similar to Behance in that respect. There isn’t even any categorization to group all content related to packaging; the only easy way to access them is by using the search bar, after which you can choose individual tags. The layout is not particularly user-friendly for this purpose, but to omit Dezeen from the list is just unthinkable.
Packaging Strategies
What makes Packaging Strategies a little more interesting than other similar blogs is the way it provides a refreshing perspective on the industry. In addition to the usual eye-candy gallery of packaging samples, the blog also offers studies, special reports, and current trends that all designers should be aware of. There is also a category where you can read about technology, such as machinery and equipment, that go into the manufacturing process of packaging.
World Brand & Packaging Design Society
In case packaging inspiration from your local areas or country are not enough, there is the World Packaging Design blog. It showcases designs from many different countries all around the world. The sorting option is pretty generous, with product category (Fashion, Medical, Dairy, Wine, etc), packaging format (Basket, Bottle, Pouch, Jar, etc), material (Wood, Plastic, Glass, Metal, etc), and business or industry (Education, Entertainment, Agriculture, Health Care, and more).
Packaging World
With its 360° Package Review, the blog stands out from the crowd. Thankfully, the feature has its own dedicated page rather than being embedded into the homepage. Although the attractive viewing option is graphic-heavy, it does not slow down the blog at all.
Another category in the gallery is Flexible Packaging, which is a non-animated collection of packaging design images, each of which comes with a short description. Apart from the Gallery, there are various topics to explore in Case Studies, Machinery, Pack Expo Shows, Design, Playbooks, and Videos.
Packaging Digest
Unlike typical design blogs that feature heavy collections of images attached with a short introduction and nothing else, Packaging Digest is more of a repository of information about the world of packaging. Recent news, industrial design services, and hot issues are all covered with daily articles. The focus here is on special types of packaging and how popular brands implement changes to their packaging designs over time.
Ambalaj
It is a personal design blog owned, run, and maintained by Kristina de Verdier. Ambalaj does not say anywhere that the focus is specifically on packaging. Many contents, however, show great appreciation on how packaging design can change the way people think about the product in question.
Other content discusses entirely different topics such as LEGO, forest bath, IKEA, origami, and much more. If you don’t care about those seemingly random discussions, look for a “packaging” tag below a post and click on it to get into a more focused category. When you do, there are plenty of inspirations to find.
core77
Product and industrial design are the most heavily featured topics in Core77. There are many categories to group contents’ topics, but unfortunately you still have to use the search bar to look for packaging-related posts. Once you do, there is nothing but inspirational contents to spark ideas. Every post comes with detailed text information, images, and sometimes videos to help you understand more about the design choices used.
Lovely Package
Some design blogs may look overly complicated to navigate or full of images that look like clutter instead of inspiring contents. That is not the case with Lovely Package. It is a simple blog filled with good-looking images to highlight the best parts of the packaging listed. The descriptions are short and concise, allowing you to browse through more in less time. The blog has been collecting samples since 2008.
BXP Magazine
Among other categories provided, Brand Experience makes a section dedicated to delivering news packaging design trends. The blog makes sure you know anytime a popular brand introduces some changes to familiar logos and labels, or when new packaging is launched in collaboration with other industries. You can also read discussions about packaging materials and technologies here.
Designer Daily
Although Designer Daily is not strictly about packaging, it tells stories about how freelance CAD designers can use a different approach to materializing their ideas. Browse All Topics to find the Packaging Design category, and enjoy the inspirational examples and discussions of the subject. Other popular topics including Illustrations, Art, Typography, and Logo can broaden your knowledge on the packaging industry as well.
Flexible Packaging
Geared toward Flexible Packaging, the blog delivers news and updates specifically about the subject matter.
The posts include close-up images of the packaging as well as inforamtion about the rationale behind design choices of the individuals who design the creations.
Package Inspiration
The name says it all. For a blog with such an obvious name, it simply has to deliver, and the blog does not disappoint. There are plenty of images for sure, but the blog makes sure that you also get the lessons hidden behind the designs by giving you useful insights on why and how the design works. It is eye-catching and educational at the same time.
All in all, the Internet is full of inspirational contents in times when you feel like creativity is hard to come by. If you know where to look and pay attention to the information provided, you’ll be constantly armed with ideas and motivations from all around the world to keep on improving and making better packaging all the time.
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Fantastic roundup of top product packaging design blogs! The recommendations are spot-on for staying updated on trends and inspiration. Thanks for sharing
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