One of my favourite types of work, is label design.

Particularly when that label design is for a new brand that is launching, for a small business owner, or new entrepreneur.  The reason why I love it is because it is all so fresh and new, and naturally the client is also super excited to be launching their own brand which means that interaction is positive, and peppered with bursts of inspiration. In fact it’s far easier to design for this type of project (in my experience) rather than producing a new product design for a brand that is global, and entrenched in 50 years of existing design guidelines.

Here are a couple of things to remember for when working on Label Designs

• Get the exact specs and measurements of the label design as required by the client, remember that this is for label design, not packaging design – there IS a difference
• Obtain any preferred colour requirements from your client, or have fun suggesting new ideas if your client is open to that
• View the product on which the label is to be placed and confirm exact orientation details from the client before heading off to design
• Discuss the type of material on which the label is to be printed, i.e. paper or vinyl and obtain any printers guidelines with regards to use of colour as well
• Design and have fun!
• Remember to ask for any additional details that need to be included on the label, i.e. client contact details, any legal requirements such as barcoding, ingredients etc – failure to do this, can severely hamper design time if you don’t consider it from the start!

About the Label Design itself

• It should reflect the look and feel as required by the client, and in line with their brand guidelines which you would have established during early discussions, or in the process of designing preliminary logo’s etc.
• The product should reflect it’s own quality, that is if it is a premium product, the design should tend towards rich colours, and possibly some embossing or foiling etc, naturally the opposite is necessary of a brand which is considered a budget brand.
• It should be easily recognizable, and aesthetically pleasing, and if there is a range of the similar products from the same brand, then it should be easy to tell that they are part of the same range, albeit variations on the same product
• It should not be too similar to a competing brand
• It should contain all necessary information as required by law
• One of the best ways of mocking up a design to see if it will *work* or not, without having to print (let’s be paper efficient here, and planet friendly) is to simply have a photograph of the products in question, and doing a little Photoshop magic with it and superimpose the image onto the photograph of the product in question, to give you an idea of what the final product will look like. You would be amazed how often this can make a big difference in your ‘minds eye’.

Happy Designing fellow creatives! Thanks for reading and please share if you have found this post helpful and interesting.