Inspiring your Packaging Design Projects

With Covid changing the way people work and buy goods, packaging from online shopping creates the serious challenge of waste production. This is why, start-ups and scaleups accelerate innovations around biodegradable, recyclable, and edible packaging.

So why does good packaging matter?

With E-com businesses booming and a huge rise in online sales- especially during Covid-19, packaging has become an integral part of the buying experience, with 40% of buyers say they would purchase a product if it comes in premium gift packaging. Furthermore 30% of customers are willing to pay a premium for products that deliver on sustainability claims. Therefore next to the actual functionality of the packaging, the creativeness of the pack will help sell products. Moreover, premium creative packaging is helping fill the gap that an actual shopping experience has left.

Creating beautiful and innovative packaging should be simple, but nowadays the customer wants more. More and more customers have peaked an interest in the sustainability of your packaging. That’s where we come in to help.

To break through to the clutter of your competitors, it pays to be different…. Innovation will help build your brand and give your product some personality. At the end of the day, the first thing the customers see is packaging- so prepare to be judged by it!

So what is Creative Packaging?

In simple terms, it’s packaging that makes you stand out from the competition! Increasing its ability to be more sustainable and cost effective.

What is Sustainable Packaging?

To simplify it, packaging that over time reduces its environmental impact and environmental footprint. Single-use plastic is still the most widely used packaging material on the planet but obviously doesnt tick any of the eco-friendly boxes.

Many packaging solutions are more eco-friendly than plastic; corrugated cardboard, recycled cardboard and paper. However food packaging uses plastic mainly for hygiene purposes, meaning cardboard is not a viable replacement. Because of this, designers, companies and scientists are developing a range of bio-plastics. These aim to replicate the functionality of plastic, while using naturally derived substances.

There are many ways to achieve this:

Reusability;
Production Process; By minimising the carbon footprint through production processes and supply chain reductions or cost saving efforts.
Ingredients; Using recycled or raw materials.

The Sustainable Packaging Coalition lists criteria for sustainable packaging as;

A) Is beneficial, safe and healthy for individuals and communities throughout its life cycle.

B) Meets market criteria for performance and cost

C) Is sourced, manufactured, transported and recycled using renewable energy

D) Optimises the use of renewable or recycled source materials

E) Is manufactured using clean production technologies and best practices

F) Is made from materials healthy throughout the life cycle

G) Is physically designed to optimize materials and energy

H) Is effectively recovered and utilised in biological and/or industrial closed loop cycles.

One way to describe innovation is creating something that fills a need- or solves a problem- that no one else could solve! The best innovations are where people didn’t even realise the need they had until seeing the product.

So what needs to happen to create innovative packaging? Here are some ideas to get you started!

Encourage reusability. At UPAC we buy back stock from our customers so that we can resell them for a very discounted price.
Add something extra or different, like good hair day Pasta selection.
Make the design the focus of your pack. Check out some of these design focused products to inspire you!
Create fun packaging. Like the Trident Cool Mint Sugar Free Gum Packs
Focus your packaging to a specific target audience. This means you can build your appeal around trends of users.
Use bright colours from your product if you can. The brighter the design, the more it will stand out on the shelf beside competitor products.

So What Are The Industry Trends?

According to Start-up Insights the top 10 Packaging Trends are:

Internet of Packaging: Things like QR codes on pack offer value- added benefits.
Biodegradable Packaging: Replacing traditional plastics like Oceanium compostable seaweed packaging.
Digital Printing: All context printed in a single pass- less laborious than traditional printing.
Packaging Automation: Packaging automation reduces human error and ensures products handle safely.
Active Packaging: Active packaging increases the shelf life of its products, eg packaging that releases antimicrobial agents to prevent bacteria growth.
Custom Packaging: Making the unboxing experience more personalised for customers.
Recyclable Packaging: With countries banning single use plastic businesses now look for alternative materials.
Edible Packaging: This enables a closed loop for packaging, i.e. edible spoons.
3D Printing: allowing companies to construct different prototypes and innovate their packaging in real time.
Nanotechnology: The use of nanoparticles mixed with polymer chains enhances package barrier properties.