A product’s label is the first indicator of quality to a customer. Enticing packaging and label design can sell a shopper on your product, even before they get the chance to hold it. Due to this paramount importance, we’ve outlined a few tips on how to approach your packaging label design. Let’s start with a few of our favorite examples.
Examples of Amazing Product Packaging Labels
As consumers, we interact with labels every single day. Whether they’ve been on our shelves for months or are fresh out of the grocery bag, the products we enjoy often times have a well-designed label that we gravitate towards.
From vibrant colors to spacious black and white, we’ve gathered a few of our favorite examples to better explain the reasons behind their success.
Label Design: | Product Type: | Label Features: |
---|---|---|
![]() | Beer | You can almost taste the refreshing Belgian Ale through the bottle design. Sun Juice effectively communicates the product’s high quality & gives shoppers the feeling of experiencing the wheat-orange delight. |
![]() | Jam | Minimalist design gives shoppers an eye-catching option. The white space and concise message speaks to the elegance and communicates the necessary nutritional information. The matted label material provides the final touch of quality. |
![]() | Gin | An abstract or artistic approach is tough to nail, but with the right complement of vibrant colors, a liquor brand can truly show off their value of fresh, tasty fruits. |
![]() | Cooking Oil | Stark white design gives customers exactly the information they're looking for. Fatworks’ branding is bold and confident, and provides just enough information to share all the details while maintaining simplicity. Notice the product within is visible behind the clear label material. |
In their own unique ways, all of the labels above excel in conveying the very essence of their brands in a way that catches shopper eyes on busy market shelves.
How can you do this for your own labels and brand? It all starts with your brand’s identity.
Before You Begin Designing Product Labels for Bottles and Jars
Before committing to your design ideas, it’s important to really understand your brand identity.
Today’s customers are increasingly identifying themselves by their favorite brands. They want to connect with the brand behind the products they love, and they aren’t afraid to share that connection with the world. In a digital world where consumers engage with one another, your brand must connect intimately with your customers.
To do so, you should consider two important aspects of your brand:
1. The Story Behind Your Brand
Every company has a story. Some companies started decades ago as local family businesses that have grown into Fortune 500s, while some are online startups driven by a founder’s passion. In either case and everything in-between, all products are inspired by stories. Sharing this message can create a unique customer journey and establish stronger relationships. This translates not only to your messaging and written copy but your design elements as well (we’ll dive into this soon).
2. Your Brand’s Qualities
Understanding your brand’s personality and unique values are key in establishing distinctness. For some brands and products, this means being loud and vibrant with excitement. For others, medicinal and nutritional warmth could be a useful approach. Whatever your tone, it is important for you to keep it consistent through all primary phases of ideal customer experiences:
- Awareness: First-impression of your brand
- Consideration and Purchase: Evaluation of a brand and the decision to buy
- Consume and Repeat: Use your product and enjoy it enough to become a repeat customer
What to Include On Your Product Label Design
With your brand qualities clearly outlined, you’re now ready to design (or re-design) a label to communicate with them.
This design should capture your customers’ attention during the awareness phase and persuade them to purchase during consideration. Successful companies do so with the following tactics:
Tell Your Story with Imagery
Now that you have your story straight, you have to find out how to tell it using the limited space of your label. This does not mean using only words. On the contrary, the most successful packaging labels keep their written copy short and sweet, even if this copy is the focal point.
Customers spare only seconds to analyze your product on the shelf. So, it’s important to make it easy for them. Including the right colors from your logo and within your label can add an extra layer of appeal to your customers without including the extra copy (but more on this later).
Provide a Way to Connect
Some easily overlooked information to include on your label would be your contact information. Providing customers a means to connect with you, both off and online gives their intrigue a chance to explore and reach out to you directly.
This includes social media information, where customer engagement is a vital indicator of success. You may even encourage your customers to share their experience on social channels, by using a hashtag or tagging your brand’s account, further amplifying your brand voice.
Include Nutritional and FDA Information
With new health trends popping up every day, more and more people want to know what’s in their products. For this and various legal reasons, it’s important to have accurate nutritional/regulatory information on your labels.
An easy way to search for what you’ll need for your specific products/industries is by searching the FDA’s guidance documents.
Aside from the legal requirements of including nutritional facts, highlight the ingredients that align with your brand qualities. This applies to food products and beyond. For Glassnow, we feel it is important to share with our customers that most of our products are manufactured with recycled materials. Our efforts to make a positive impact may then be supported and amplified by our customers who share these values.
Matching Your Label Material to the Right Bottle or Jar Surface
Not to be excluded from your design process, choosing your packaging materials is an important step in finalizing the aesthetics of your product. Using unique materials can also give your product a specialty or quality feeling when the customer is holding it, further adding to their experience.
Glass Packaging is Always Best, Even for Product Labels
As a manufacturer of glass packaging, we would always recommend using glass for packaging products over plastic. It’s healthier, of higher elegance, and speaks to the quality of the product packaged within. You can read more on the glass vs. plastic packaging debate here.
Furthermore, the harder surface allows for a longer-lasting bond with the label.
Use Unique Labeling Materials on Bottles and Jars
We’ve all seen packaging that goes beyond traditional glossy labels to become immediately recognizable. It’s certainly not a make-or-break, but if you have the means, a little extra flair with your materials can go a long way into standing out on the grocery shelf.
Make sure that the materials speak to your brand and product characteristics. A few of the prime examples include:
- Matte Label – Often associated with organic products for its natural texture.
- Brown Kraft Paper – Even more so than Matte labels, it’s often paired with scented and natural products.
- Metallic Foils – The shine may catch eyes from down the aisle and is flexible in pairing with products.
- Wax Seals – Often added to closures, wax seals secure beverages and other liquid products.
- Ribbon or String Closures – Classy and often used for gifted products.
Want to stand out without worrying about material options? While pricey, direct labeling can offer a great deal of elegance to any product line without the need for excess materials. Paired with glass packaging, a direct label offers a hands-on experience with your product like no other.
Label Sizing For Jars and Bottles
With your packaging and label materials set, it’s time to decide on the perfect size. This step means considering all aspects of your packaging; namely the size of your brand elements, the proportions of your packaging, and the finishing touches that make it whole.
Use Your Labeling Space
No matter the size of your products, it’s important to ensure the wise use of space on your label. This doesn’t mean using the largest possible label, as some food or vibrant products may want to be shown off with a small label in a clear container. Nailing the proper proportions of both will ensure that your unique label is seen. Although your logo is important, make sure to leave space (or negative space) for the brand and visual messaging.
Refer back to the section above on “What To Include On Your Label” and prioritize from there.
Remember Packaging Size, Lids, and More
To return to packaging size, it’s important to remember how your label can change with multiple product sizes. Offering a smaller size of your product can mean a complete redesign of your established label.
Save effort by establishing multiple styles early on that can be utilized with other sizes or products. Despite many sizes or products, a product line should always be distinguished and recognizable.
Your final label design also needs to consider your packaging accessories, like screw caps and heat bands. These small elements should flow seamlessly with your label and packaging to create an overall unique appearance. Be sure to search your provider’s catalog of accessories to confirm that they have items to compliment your final product.
Glassnow Products Ideal for Labeling
As a glass manufacturer ourselves, we would be remiss if we didn’t share some of our label-friendly designs! You can find this selection and more for your specific industry on our website.
Image: | Product Name: | Labelling Dimensions: |
---|---|---|
![]() | 8.5oz Matic Glass Bottle | 3"H x 3"L : 76mm x 76mm |
![]() | 3.4oz Square Glass Jar | 1.25"H x 1.25"L : 31.75mm x 31.75mm |
![]() | 6oz Pyramid Glass Bottle | .5"H x 5"L : 12mm x 127mm |
![]() | 8.5oz Square Glass Jar | 1"H x 1"L : 25mm x 25mm |
![]() | 6oz Fiji Glass Bottle | 1.5"H x 3"L : 38mm x 76mm |
![]() | 8oz Apothecary Glass Jar | 1.5"H x 9.5"L : 44mm x 241mm |
Product Labels With Attractive Colors and Fonts
Now we come to the most fun aspect of designing your packaging; color and font! This is where your packaging is truly brought to life, and where you can really catch a customer’s eye.
Picking the Right Font
The most direct method of communicating with your customers should be easy to understand. A unique font style should make your audience eager to read your copy, not straining to determine the letters.
Keeping within the guidelines of your brand is important, but that does not mean you can’t have a little fun with some products.
Your font should also offer enough variability, not only for emphasizing words but for use across your product lines and promotion channels. Consider also the space between letters and lines (kerning and leading), as well as capitalization vs. lowercase letters.
To remember all of this, just make sure your font follows 3 basic rules:
- Your font should be flexible for print, desktop computers, and mobile devices
- The font should have multiple weights for building a typographic hierarchy
- Your font should be legible in any weight or style
Following the above rules will ensure an effective style of copy, not only for your label but on all of your communication channels.
Choose Colors That Make Your Labels Pop
If you’re looking to say more than your copy will allow, your color scheme can convey a world of emotion and character within a single glance. Some of the more positive colors to utilize include:
- Green: Environmental and relaxed
- White: Secure and clean
- Black: Stable and wise
- Blue: Creative and happy
- Orange: Vitality, hunger, and adventure
Choosing colors that stand out from your competition is also vital when deciding on your color scheme. Visual Capitalist has done some great work in their article by analyzing companies in 26 industries by their color scheme. Take a look there to see how to communicate within those industries, and where you can stand out with your own colors.
As you can see, labeling involves many different factors in your product packaging and brand identity. However, Glassnow is confident that by using these tips, you can produce an eye-catching label to be proud of for years to come.