Offline Design Inspiration, Part 3: Food Packaging
Whether it’s a combination of colors, interesting logos or the promise of what lies inside, food packaging is something the vast majority of us look at every day. If we haven’t tried, or seen a product before, the packaging is what’s going to draw us in, make us pick the box up and read more about it.
As a simple example, let’s take cornflakes in the supermarket. If I came across either of these for the first time, to me, the Kellogg’s pack looks infinitely superior and more appealing. Although both show similar information — a logo, an image, both have white space – it is the use of strong colors, a larger bolder image and the nutritional information on the pack on the left which conveys a richness. The value corn flakes are cheaper to buy, but they look cheap, too.
How is this related to web design? Well, good design is good design, and many of the concepts will be the same regardless of where the design is used. In general terms, the packaging design should attract attention, it should make the product appealing, and it can impress us with creativity. Just like a website.
So below I’ve picked out some creative, some innovative, and hopefully inspiring food packaging. If you’re hungry, look away now because here are fifteen examples of cool food packaging design.
1. There’s a lovely retro feel to this Cookies and Cream cake mix. The retro look is achieved using an old style font with simple flat illustration.
2. The brightly colored and illustrated packaging is obviously aimed at the kid’s market.
3. Clean and cool, it’s the Chilly Billy.
4. A fairly trendy type-based design for these free range eggs.
5. The always cool, Ben and Jerry’s packaging is very recognizable with its cartoon style illustration and fonts.
6. Nice use of white space and potato image on these packets of Darling Spuds crisps.
7. Elegant typography and label design on Sarabeth’s jam.
8. The Little Dish company have a range of food aimed at children. Each package has its own beautiful illustrated character.
9. If I could actually stomach the thoughts of eating sardines, then I would buy this pack for the design alone.
10. The labels on these Via Roma food jars feature humorous black and white photography, combined with an elegant modern typeface.
11. Clear honey, clear label with a cute logo from Waitrose.
12. Not for human consumption, but it is appealing! Simple icons on a range of colored labels make an attractive design on these puppy snacks.
13. A very clean modern design for yoghurt.
14. Popfish is a Japanese restaurant in Brazil and this is their brightly colored packaging.
15. And, finally, my own personal favorite. Not quite food, but a very cool strawberry batman milk cocktail.
Where to find more sites about packaging design:
And of course this is supposed to be about offline inspiration, so keep your eyes peeled in your local shop, restaurant, café! Take pictures of the designs you like and keep them for inspiration further down the line.
What did you think of these designs? Have you seen any other food packaging that made you think “wow” recently?
Related Reading On Sitepoint:
