The average consumer doesn’t understand how much work goes into great packaging, but he or she does recognise excellence in packaging when confronted with it. It’s all around us, after all, and there are plenty of comparisons to be made. Packaging used to be simply to protect and ship a product, but it’s much, much more than that now – and the packaging industry keeps evolving.
Understanding how your customer thinks and what excites them – and being able to predict what the trends will be a few months from now – can give you an invaluable edge over your competition. Do you want to create the best packaging ever? Here are the top five rules you should follow for trendy packaging design.
Childhood memories
Hand-drawn designs, illustrative curves, and very simple to understand drawings seem to have made a comeback. Strangely, it’s the millennials who crave it the most; perhaps their feeling of nostalgia and craving for the past has created this opportunity. It’s all about originality and genuineness.
Keeping it simple
It pays to be a minimalist in this day and age – with all the information flying around, it’s often better to keep it all as simple as possible. Create a very straightforward message and don’t overdo it with too many details. Especially when it comes to luxury products, less seems to be more. This trend seems to have started with the cosmetics industry, but is projected to spread much wider.
Patterns
A pattern – a certain design that is repeated over and over again, like background wallpaper – is back with a vengeance, and it’s bolder than ever. The patterns can be very simple, but they make a point. They are also an excellent way to tie different products together into a product range under one brand.
Handwriting fonts
People are tired of seeing neat and computerised letters when they read; it evokes too many images of mass production and leaves the reader feeling stuck. Handwritten messages and playful lettering make more of an impact.
Through the post
More and more shoppers are getting their products via post due to the rise of ecommerce, and this means special attention needs to be given to packaging that goes the postal route. In order not to look and feel too commercial, many designers feel a personal touch has to be added.
With simple designs and striking, repetitive patterns comes great contrast in colour – the trend of providing striking hues and juxtaposing them to create bold differences seems to work very well, especially with the younger generation. It not only creates a visually striking package, as confirmed by packaging design companies – it also invokes feelings of both warmth and playfulness whilst projecting quality and style. These are exciting trends, and they’re very likely to stay for a while.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
