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How does a consumer recognize your brand among thousands of others in a store? What makes your product stand out on the shelf among competitors? What information does your product label contain? It’s the label that answers all of these questions.
In the past, a product label served as a general source of information about the product, and that was its primary function at this time. Now, it’s a crucial communication tool between companies and consumers, through which companies create a clean brand image and communicate their ideas.
With the help of a branding agency or a design studio, you can create a bright, memorable, and relevant label design. How does it happen? Let us tell you how we do it at PG.
The stages of the label design process:
- Analysis: we study visual trends and techniques in label design to suggest a new and relevant solution for the market. Then we examine the positioning and design of competitor brands. This stage is necessary to outline the boundaries of where we can move with the design and where we shouldn’t.
- Concept development: at this stage, we create the maximum number of sketches, from which the most promising ones are selected and refined for presentation to the client. Depending on the complexity of the project, a large team of specialists may work at this stage: several designers, art and creative directors, as well as more specialized technical experts (for example, a 3D designer).
- Consumer testing: it’s an important step to ensure that the developed solution works for the audience and that consumers will buy your product. This can be done using qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative methods (online surveys). Based on the research results, the best concept is selected and additional design revisions could be made if necessary.
- Pre-printing: agency designers provide recommendations for printing and preferred materials on labels, as well as packaging and other handouts, if necessary.
What is crucial to consider when creating a label design?
Developing a label design is a big strategic move because most of the labels are not changed annually. It is an investment for at least several years or even decades, and truly high-quality packaging stays with brands forever. If the work was done well initially, for a long time you will only need to make minor adjustments to maintain the relevance of the design system: remove outdated elements and refresh the brand image. And only after a very long time will you need a complete redesign.
How to understand that you have a good design? Pay attention to the following criteria:
- Category compliance: in any product category, there are well-established “rules” that need to be followed or intentionally violated. For example, consumers are used to milk is fresh and natural, so you see light packaging with rustic motifs on the shelves. Therefore, milk in a black package will encounter very strong resistance from the market, which can even lead to the brand being taken off the shelves.
- Originality: even though you should consider the context of the category, you should be original enough to be noticed. Finding this balance is the task of a professional designer. Originality helps make your brand more noticeable on the shelf and facilitates consumer memorisation of the package as well.
- Informativeness: the consumer should find all the necessary information about the product on the label – its properties, quality, volume, and other important information. If all of this is present, then the label can be called informative from a rational point of view. From an emotional point of view, the label should deliver the brand’s positioning: its mood, emotions, and a unique atmosphere that the brand seeks to establish in the consumer’s mind.
- Clarity: should all formulations and visual codes be simple and unambiguous for perception. Otherwise, he may put your product on the shelf and take a competitor’s product that he does not need to “decipher.” Moreover, the consumer should not confuse your product with a product from another category. This is rare but can have a bold impact on the company’s sales.
Why should you order label design from PG:
- Over 10 years of experience: during this time we have worked with different categories and manufacturers, which allows us to continue developing and offering original solutions to our clients.
- PG is a winner of industry competitions: our works regularly become winners of both local and international design competitions.
- A strategic approach to tasks: we always include at least small analytical stages in our projects to prepare for the task and make our work more meaningful.
Q&A
How is label design development carried out?
In the beginning, we hold a briefing with the client, where we clarify the request and vision of the client’s task. Then we move on to the analysis stage: depending on the project, this can be simply researching design trends in the category, or it can be researching consumers and analyzing competitor positioning. After that, our designers develop at least 3 versions of the label design. The client chooses one that we refine and prepares for printing.
How long does label design development take?
The concept development stage lasts 7-10 days. Further work on adapting to other SKUs depends on the amount of work.
For which product categories do you develop label design?
We do not specialise in any specific product category, so you can contact us regardless of what products you manufacture.
Examples of our work:
We enjoy working on various tasks, so you can get inspired by the creativity in our portfolio!
If you’re interested in working with us, feel free to contact our client services team. We look at each brief individually and always try to answer every question as soon as possible.
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Still have questions? Contact us, we will be happy to answer them!
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