Packaging design
Packaging design isn’t one beautiful box but a system of touchpoints that makes an order recognisable before anyone opens it: boxes, bags, stickers, tape, cups, tray liners and menus. We design packaging together with a visual identity or for a brand that already has one, and hand over print-ready files. An identity with packaging starts at $3,000.
What packaging design includes, and why it’s a system
Almost all of our packaging work is for food delivery and restaurants. There, packaging has two jobs: to reach the customer looking recognisable, and to make the box something people want to photograph rather than throw away. For Tondo Pizza the centre of the packaging is an original tondo illustration, and the logo was chosen to read both on a small sticker and on a 32-centimetre box.
Packaging is almost never one item. An order from Michiko comes with a bag, a sticker, branded tape, a chopstick sleeve and a tray liner, and all of it has to look like one set. So we design a set of elements — a mark, colours, patterns, an illustration — from which any new touchpoint can be built, rather than separate one-off layouts.
Packaging design depends on printing: how many inks, what material, what size. Tondo Pizza has a green monochrome version of the illustration for one- or two-colour print, Minimal Burger uses black matt board for boxes and bags with monochrome graphics, and the KaifBurger pattern makes the packaging recognisable even without the logo. If you don’t have an identity yet, we start with visual identity — packaging tests it better than any other touchpoint.
When you need it
- You’re opening a delivery service or a restaurant and need packaging people recognise in a courier’s hands and on the table.
- Orders now arrive in a standard box with a sticker and look no different from competitors’.
- You want packaging people feel like photographing and posting on social media.
- You’re launching a new line or location and want its own packaging within the brand’s style.
- You have a logo and identity, but the boxes, bags and cups were ordered at different times and look like different brands.
What’s included
- A look at competitors: what packaging looks like in your niche and which colours and symbols are already taken.
- A concept: the key image — an illustration, a mascot or a pattern — that holds the whole system together.
- An original illustration or mascot, drawn together with illustrators from sketch to final version.
- Design of touchpoints from an agreed list: boxes in several sizes, bags, stickers, tape, cups and sauce pots, chopstick sleeves, tray liners, menus.
- Adaptation to the print method and material: a one- or two-colour version, graphics for kraft or dark board.
- Mockups that show how the packaging looks in real life before anything is printed.
- Print-ready files for your packaging sizes, plus source files.
Pricing
- Identity with packagingfrom $3,000
A visual identity, an original illustration or mascot, packaging and touchpoints with mockups and print-ready files.
- Packaging for an existing identityafter the brief
If you already have a logo and identity, we quote by the number of touchpoints, sizes and how complex the graphics are.
Packaging for an existing identity is quoted after the brief: the price depends on the number of touchpoints and whether an illustration is needed. Printing and the packaging itself, font licences and photography are paid separately, and we name them before we start. We give an exact quote after a brief.
How we work
01. Brief and touchpoint list
We look at the product, sales channels and competitors, list the packaging items and note the sizes and print method.
02. Concept
We suggest two or three directions and show each on a key item — usually the box or the bag.
03. Illustration and system
We draw the illustration or patterns, apply the style to every touchpoint and show mockups.
04. Print-ready files
We prepare the final files for the sizes and print method and hand over the source files.
What we’ve done
All work-
An Italian Art Nouveau identity for a pizzeria: an original tondo illustration, packaging and touchpoints
The name suggested the concept. A tondo is a round Renaissance painting, so the identity centres on its own tondo: a mother and child with pizza, as in classic Italian subjects, framed by a wreath of tomatoes and flowers.
View case: Tondo Pizza -
A brand for an online Japanese restaurant with a Shiba mascot: a character recognised by its smile alone
We created the brand’s hero, a smiling Shiba Inu. The Shiba is one of Japan’s symbols, and its squinting smile sets the tone straight away: friendly, witty and unpretentious.
View case: Michiko -
An identity for an online pan-Asian restaurant: lively lettering, a stack of bowls and six patterns
The logo is lively lettering based on CoFo Chimera: the letters dance like the signs of street cafés but stay legible.
View case: Yugo-Vostok -
An identity for a premium burger restaurant: a burger reduced to a circle and two lines
The symbol is a burger reduced to the minimum: a circle cut by two lines into bun, patty and bun. It’s recognisable at a glance and needs no extra detail.
View case: Minimal Burger -
An identity for an affordable burger joint: a «Й» crowned with a bun and a style that simply makes you smile
We wrote the name in Cyrillic, big and slanted: «КАЙФ» sounds louder than the Latin spelling and conveys the mood at once.
View case: KaifBurger -
An identity for Korean chicken wings delivery: a chicken drawn from the taegeuk and a pattern of the flag’s trigrams
The starting point is the name itself. In Korean, fried chicken is literally 프라이드 치킨, “peuraideu chikin”. We gave the name back its Korean spelling, which sits next to the logo on every touchpoint.
View case: Fried Chicken
Frequently asked questions
How much does packaging design cost?
As part of a visual identity, from $3,000: the identity, an illustration or mascot, packaging and touchpoints with print-ready files. Packaging for an existing identity is quoted after the brief, by the number of touchpoints and the complexity of the graphics. Printing is paid separately.
What does packaging design include?
A look at competitors, a concept, an illustration or mascot if needed, design of every item on the agreed list, mockups and print-ready files. For Yugo-Vostok, for example, the system included bags in two formats, stickers, two kinds of tape, three chopstick sleeve designs, a tray liner and a menu.
Can I order packaging design without a brand identity?
If you already have an identity, yes — we design the packaging to your rules. If there’s no logo or identity yet, it’s easier to do everything together: packaging is the most visible touchpoint, and it tests an identity better than anything else.
Do you print the packaging?
We design the packaging and prepare print-ready files. Printing and the packaging itself aren’t included in our price and are paid separately.
How can packaging be made simpler and cheaper to print?
Fewer inks and a well-chosen material. For Tondo Pizza we made a monochrome version of the illustration for one- or two-colour print, and Minimal Burger relies on kraft, black board and a single colour accent.
Do you design packaging for retail and marketplace products?
Our case studies are packaging for food delivery and restaurants. For a product on a shelf the principles are the same, but mandatory labelling and platform requirements come into play, so we discuss such projects at the brief.
How long does packaging design take?
It depends on the number of touchpoints, whether an original illustration is needed and how quickly approvals go. We name the timeline after a brief, together with the estimate.
More in Branding and identity
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Logo design services
A logo is the way your name is written, or the symbol, that people recognise on a sign, on packaging, in an app icon and in a social media feed.
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Brand identity design and brand book
A brand identity, or corporate identity, is the set of visual elements and rules that make a brand recognisable on any touchpoint: logo, colours, typefaces, graphics and illustration.
What shall we build together?
Tell us what you want to launch or improve. We’ll discuss the task and suggest the next step.