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Packaging has the highest cost of error in graphic design. A mistake on a website is fixed in five minutes; a mistake on fifty thousand printed cartons is fifty thousand cartons.
Start with the dieline
The dieline is the flat cutting and folding template, supplied by whoever manufactures the pack. Nothing should be designed before it exists, because panel dimensions, glue flaps, tuck tabs and the areas hidden by folding all determine where artwork can go.
Ask the manufacturer for the dieline as a vector file with the cut, crease and bleed lines on separate named layers. Designing on a dieline you drew yourself from measurements is the most common cause of a reprint.
The three jobs of a pack
- 1Get noticed at two metres. This is about the block of colour, the shape and the silhouette — not the copy.
- 2Explain itself at arm's length. What it is, what variant, what quantity, in that order.
- 3Satisfy the back-of-pack requirements. Ingredients, warnings, weight, barcode, batch and date coding, recycling marks.
Print methods
| Digital | Low set-up cost, viable for short runs and variable data. Colour consistency across runs is less reliable. |
|---|---|
| Litho | Excellent quality, high set-up cost, economical at volume. The standard for cartons. |
| Flexo | Common for labels and flexible packaging. Handles fine detail less well; avoid hairlines and small reversed type. |
| Gravure | Very high quality at very high volume. Cylinder costs make it viable only for large runs. |
| Screen | Used for bottles and containers. Limited colours, heavy ink lay-down, strong on solid areas. |
Colour, realistically
Specify Pantone for any colour that has to match across suppliers, and expect the printed result to differ from your screen. Ask for a physical proof on the actual substrate — the same ink on uncoated board, coated board and a metallised film will look like three different colours.
Where a brand colour sits outside the CMYK gamut, either accept a duller printed version or pay for a spot colour. Deciding this before design rather than after avoids an unpleasant conversation at proof stage.
Things that cause reprints
- Barcodes too small, printed on a dark background, or with the quiet zone violated. Test-scan the proof.
- Text too close to the trim or across a fold.
- Compliance information below the legally required minimum size.
- Fine reversed-out type in flexo, which fills in and becomes illegible.
- Artwork built on the wrong dieline version. Version control the dieline explicitly.
- Missing or incorrect batch and date-code space, discovered at the packing line.
Sustainability without greenwash
Claims on packaging are increasingly regulated. Vague terms like "eco-friendly" and "green" attract scrutiny in several jurisdictions. If you make a claim, make it specific and verifiable — a stated percentage of recycled content, a named certification, a defined recyclability instruction. Design decisions matter too: mixed materials and full-coverage laminates make packs harder to recycle regardless of what the label says.
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