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Consumers are shown more product options than ever, so your priority should always be to stand out. Well-designed packaging says who you are and why customers need to get in on what you're selling. If not, customers are walking past your products instead of buying them. If you're making some changes to your packaging, here are our top five tips to get started.
1. How are Your Colors Being Perceived?
Color is an essential element of your packaging. Upon sight, colors help communicate thoughts, feelings, and emotions. By choosing the right colors, your target market will be attracted to your visual branding.
Utilizing colors in an intentional way can help customers interpret your product's purpose. For example, the flower company Miss Grass utilizes different colors to represent their strains.
Orange is used to represent the upbeat energy of sativa, while their blue packaging evokes mellow vibes for indica. This successfully differentiates their products while giving them a youthful, fun look. But how will you choose the best color palette for your brand?
Bright, bold colors can be eye-catching and convey energy and excitement, while more muted, natural colors can convey relaxation and wellness. Consider the emotions and feelings you want to evoke with your packaging and choose colors that align with those goals and your brand strategy. Don't let your packaging get lost in a sea of other options.
2. are Your Fonts Unique?
A font can feel like an afterthought after all the hard work of creating a product. Choosing a font for your logo and branding that is visually clear and interesting will be vital for creating brand recognition.
Whether it's a bold, heavy font or a feminine, flowing one, it all helps to tell your story.
Like packaging colors, the type choice you utilize impacts the design. Consider the personality and tone of your brand, and choose fonts that align with those traits. For example:
Paradiso uses a bold cursive font to compliment their tropical aesthetic, giving them a look that is synonymous with vacation.
Reunion's logo has a physical connection between the U and N, symbolizing togetherness that is imperative in their brand story.
Enuf Period uses a feminine type with a dot at the end of their logo to represent their mission to end stigmas surrounding mensuration.
Additionally, it's important to ensure that the font is easy to read and legible, particularly when it comes to your product name and important information about what's inside your cannabis product.
Pro Tip: Use sites like Creative Market to see what fonts are trending to pull inspiration from, but make sure that the fonts you choose are evergreen and not overused.
3. are you Focusing On the Details?
The physical construction and materials of your packaging can have endless options. Custom preroll boxes, textured metal tins, and glass jars all help to convey a superior product from its competitors.
If your brand's aesthetic has a craft, hand-made feel, you should opt for matte finishes, kraft paper board, and organic materials.
Quality materials elevate your luxury cannabis product to convey sophistication while protecting the product.
However, if your brand is luxe, expensive and modern, you may want to opt for hot-stamped foils, UV spot gloss treatments, or soft-touch finishes. Flower company Zoma, pictured above, is an excellent example of a brand that manages to combine sophisticated packaging while still representing its mission to provide organic cannabis.
If your brand's mission is to reduce environmental impact, and you use a recycled box for your packaging, make sure that the inks are organic and that you use less deco (gloss, foils, etc.) for an overall lesser impact. Whatever choices you make, ensure that your packaging deco reflects your brand message and isn't just something said to get more support without following through on your promise.
4. Function Meets Fashion
While choosing a design that has unique deco elements may be top of mind initially,
ensure that your packaging can still protect and store the product you are selling. No one wants cute packaging that doesn't protect what's inside!
When shopping around for packaging, ask suppliers if they can provide samples for you to do full test runs with before purchasing a large order. If your tincture packaging degrades over time, or your gummies melt in partial shade, consumers can be left with a negative impression of your brand.
5. are You Thinking Long-Term?
Packaging extends beyond the consumer experience. The quality and design you choose will impact how it holds up during shipping, sitting in a retail space, or in someone's home.
Durable materials will aid you in shipping but may go against your zero-waste standards. Or you may want to go for the least costly preroll tube, but find out it's not durable enough for shipping. Aim high, but don't neglect these aspects of your packaging. Consider custom packaging to optimize how your product ships!
Your visual branding should align with your message for the foreseeable future. Stick true to your brand's identity in a way that is timeless. Trends are important to consider, but when investing in a total packaging redesign you want to ensure that it will be effective in the long term.
Summary:
If you're revamping your packaging design, don't forget to think about these important aspects.
The cannabis industry is full of interesting and unique packaging designs. By listening to the above tips, your brand can create packaging that showcases your product with confidence. Considering a cannabis design agency is a beneficial way to create a competitive brand design. Have you tried a re-design of your packaging for your business yet? How did it go? We'd love to hear from you!