15 Creative Packaging Design Ideas
7 seconds, that’s all the time it takes for a customer to pick a product based on how it looks. Wild isn’t it! It takes us longer to tie our shoes.
These days, to stand out from the crowd you literally need to take the box, and then think outside it, in it and around it. Because it's not just a box, but an opportunity to tell a story, wow, entice, to be remembered!... Sorry, we got a bit carried away there. But honestly, the eCommerce world is savage and first impressions matter. To show you the potential for your packaging, we’ve put our creative hats on and found 15 inspirational packaging designs to get you inspired.
1. Get colourful
Get your customers in the mood with a pop of colour. Colour is that age-old trick those sneaky marketers use to subconsciously make people feel a certain way, like happiness, serenity, or even hunger. Moodcast Fragrance Co are spot on with their colour coordination, connecting each candle to a “mood” and colouring them accordingly.
Image: Moodcast - Behance
2. Flavour you can see
What if the way you open a package could immediately make you think of what the product tastes like? Well, Smirnoff did just that to launch Smirnoff Caipiroska, wrapping all their bottles in a material that looked and felt like the fruity flavours in the bottle. Tasty!
Image: Smirnoff Caipiroska - Behance
3. Useful design
Portion control with pasta!? Now those are two words we never thought we’d hear in a sentence. But tbh, the struggle is real! Neal Fletcher is the clever designer behind "Six Servings of Italian Spaghetti", a package concept that uses built in tabs to help the customers portion one to six servings of dried spaghetti.
Image: Neal Fletcher - CargoCollective
4. Window of opportunity
It's one thing to use your packaging to enhance your product, but it’s another to use your product to enhance your packaging. Nikita Konkin nailed it with her pasta packaging concept, "Good Hair Day", using a cleverly shaped window to make the pasta look like hair.
Image: Nikita Konkin - Behance
5. Think outside the box
Literally! Why tell customers what’s in the box when you can show them, like this juice box concept by Japanese industrial designer, Naoto Fukasawa, that has the look and feel of the fruit inside. We don’t know whether to be freaked out or impressed.
Image: Naoto Fukasawa - beachpackagingdesign
6. Packaging with a purpose
When a company designs their packaging to have a second purpose for the product and reduces waste! That’s #goals for us. Hangerpak did just that creating a cardboard shipping box, designed to mail tshirts that transforms into a coat hanger.
Image: Steve Haslip - Behance
7. K.I.S.S
Keep it simple! Don't overcomplicate your packaging if your product is uncomplicated. Like The Paper Water Bottle Company, who’s alternative water bottle design is as natural as what’s inside.
Image: paperwaterbottle.com
8. Bagvertise
It’s time to bagvertising! Kinda sounds like a new aerobics’ workout, hey? It’s actually branding a bag to make it look like the person is holding something (other than a bag, obviously). YKM definitely nailed the brief on this one, when they designed this sports carry bag that’s made it look like the person on the bag is skipping.
Image: YKM - Behance
9. Don’t be a square
Who said a box had to be square? Michelle Currie designed fish food package shaped like…you guessed it…a fish. But wait, there’s more! The shape isn’t only to look cool but it’s functional. The fish's mouth serves as portion control for the food, so you don’t overfeed your fishy friends.
Image: Hooked Fish Pellets - michellecurriedesign.com
10. Dinner and a show
Once you’ve taken the product out of the box then the box usually ends up in the bin, right? We mean, unless you're child, or a cat then the box is probably more interesting than the product. Well Pizza Hut helped its customer release their inner child with their Blockbuster Pizza Box, a pizza box that doubled as a DIY movie projector.
Image: Pizza Hut - Behance
11. Now you see it, now you don’t
Notpla, creatively named because it’s ‘not plastic’, was designed by the brains at Skipping Rocks Lab. It’s an edible and biodegradable material made from seaweed and plants that’s strong enough to be used as a whisky glass but will break down (like after you have that glass of whisky) within four to six weeks. No waste management or industrial composting facilities are required.
Image: Notpla - notpla.com
12. A label with life
We love a good label that visually grabs our attention, but what about one that breaks the third dimension? When paired with a smart phone, this unassuming 19 crimes label comes to life to tell you the story of the convict on the bottle.
Image: 19 Crimes - Behance
13. Any time is pizza time
Pizza is usually a lunchtime or dinner food, right? Not for 7 West, a 24-hour pizza restaurant in Canada. To boost off-hour pizza orders they came up with this creative redesign for their pizza boxes to show that pizza time, could be any time. Each box featured a clock graphic for that time with a message to say why that time was perfect for pizza. And now, we're hungry.
Image: Pizza Time - Behance
14. Be bold
Us humans are very visual creatures and using patterns with bold colours are a simple way to get our attention. Take South African tea brand, Cooper & Flynn, for example! The way they use colour and the images of tea ingredients in the patterns to compliment the flavour of their teas is simply *chef’s kiss*.
Image: Cooper & Flynn - Behance
15. Using the whole product
Another eco icon for ya! The Srisangdao Rice brand created this STUNNING but humble die-formed packaging from the chaffs of rice leftover from the husking process (aka the skin thing around the rice grain). Better yet, once it’s finished containing rice you can give it a secondary life as a tissue box.
Image: Srisangdao Rice - Behance
As you can see, some talented individuals that have set the packaging bar pretty high, but we hope it’s inspired you to get creative, innovative and think outside the box, or in it with your packaging designs.
Packleo thinks that being kind to the environment doesn’t mean your packaging has to be boring, which is why we’re determined to bringing packaging joy to small businesses.
Packleo Packaging Joy.
