Businesses often wonder "How do I design pouch packaging?" Design pouch packaging by creating artwork on a pouch dieline template so the design fits around seals, folds, and gussets. Place the logo, product name, and key details clearly on the front, use readable fonts and strong colors, and keep important elements inside safe zones. Prepare the final file with proper bleed, resolution, and color settings before printing.
Overview
Pouches continue to be one of the most popular types of packaging for food, dietary supplements, cosmetics and other consumer products. They are also an attractive and economical form of packaging that can help sell items in retail and grocery stores.
When designing packaging for flexible pouches, there is a lot more to consider than just putting a design on a pouch. The best packaging designs combine the functional requirements, branding, materials, and manufacturing constraints to create pouches that not only protect the product, but also create an attractive package for customers.
To get packaging to work well in both stores and online, it is essential to understand how packaging works with flexible pouches and how to choose the right custom pouch structure and artwork placement during the design process.
"Packaging design is the silent salesman on the shelf." - Martin Lindstrom, branding and consumer behavior expert.
The purpose of this guide is to teach you how to effectively design a flexible pouch; this includes tips from industry experts, mistakes that are made frequently in the design of custom mylar pouches and the proven professional design techniques that appeared to be successful for other brand manufacturers.
Step 1: Obtain a Pouch Dieline
The first step to designing your pouch packaging is getting a pouch die-line template. A die-line relates to the full-size design of the pouch including the folds, seals, bleed and safe areas.
Without a die-line, designers are left guessing where the artwork will be on the final pouch.
A typical pouch die-line has:
• front panel
• back panel
• side seals
• bottom gusset fold
• zipper location
• tear notch location
• bleed and trim lines
Using design software such as Adobe Illustrator to work with your pouch die-lines will provide you with the ability to align and layer your artwork with precision.
Tip: Always keep important text located inside the safe zone to ensure it won't get cut off during the manufacturing process.
Step 2: Map Out the Front Panel Layout
Next, you should decide on a layout for your packaging (also known as “front panel”). The front panel of your pouch is more influential than any other side of your pouch; it is also referred to as the “display side,” as that’s how most people will see your product.
To create a strong “front panel,” professional designers typically create layouts that have the following elements (not an exhaustive list):
1. Place your logo / brand name (or similar) at the top;
2. Hosting the product name, or similar, would go in the middle;
3. Place key benefit and/or description (i.e., product feature) below the product name;
4. The weight or quantity, is typically placed last, towards the very bottom of the front of your pouch.
The above front panel design ensures a level of visual ease in being able ground the eye of a consumer in the packaging design, allowing for a natural progression, right down the packaging.
Designers often study existing packaging to understand layout and proportions. Reviewing a collection of custom mylar pouch packaging examples can make it easier to plan your own design.
Quick Tip: You can easily determine whether or not your product name will be readable, by taking a step back from your packaging (a distance of 4–5 feet); if it is not readable, the packaging / front panel design will need changes made before you sell the product.
Step 3: Putting Together The Back Panel
Because the back panel of a product is considered a space to provide customers with information about the product instead of for branding, every back panel will be different.
Depending on your product, the back panel could contain:
- Product description
- Instructions on how your product is to be used
- An ingredients list (for edible products)
- Legal (regulatory) information (date of manufacture, date of expiration, etc.)
- Barcode placement
- Company’s contact information
Because of the emphasis put on readability of the back panel, it is very important to use simple fonts, adequate spacing and be sure that your back panel does not have unnecessary graphics that make them difficult to read.
Quick Tip: The majority of designers will align the barcode and any legal information down toward the bottom of the pouch so that the branding elements are clean and clear on their respective panels.
Step 4: Design Around the Zipper and Seal Areas
The design of flexible bags, which have joined edges and zipper closures, can be affected by how they are manufactured.
Important artwork should not be located:
• The upper heat seal above the zipper.
• The edge side seals.
• The lower gusset fold.
• Tear notches.
These will be possibly altered or covered-up if the pouch is filled.
Designing pouch packaging can be challenging if you are not familiar with dielines and flexible packaging layouts. Some packaging suppliers, such as Brandmydispo, offer Free design services to help brands turn their ideas into print-ready pouch artwork.
Quick Tip: A good rule of thumb is to provide a visual safety area of at least 5–10 millimeters from each of the seal edges when using logos and text.
Step 5: Use Color to Attract Attention
The performance that mylar pouch packaging provides can largely depend on the color scheme. Bright or high contrast colors tend to show up better compared to other items on the shelf due to being in a crowded retail space.
When it comes to choosing colors for your pouch packaging, you should take into consideration:
1) the expectations of the product category
2) the personality of your brand
3) how well the pouch will be visible from the shelf
4) how well the contrast between the text and background will work together
For example, using bright color blocks with large typography can produce a very strong presence on the shelf.
Quick Tip: In many instances, designers will create multiple color options to test and see which color option produces the best visual appeal before deciding on which option to use.
Step 6: Choose Fonts That Are Easy to Read
A pouch design can be impacted positively or negatively by typography. Decorative/complicated fonts may look pretty enough on a computer screen to be used in a design; however, once printed on a small packaging item, they become difficult to read.
Good font choices for your pouch packaging are as follows:
• legible without being very close to the viewer
• consist with the brand’s identity
• have a balanced relationship with other design elements
Most designers try to use one primary display font and one simple font as a supporting component to maintain the clarity of writing on pouch packaging.
Quick Tip: Make sure there are not too many different types of fonts used as this will create a cluttered look in pouch packaging.
Step 7: Add Visual Elements That Reinforce the Product
Visual representations of the product and/or flavor of the product are very common elements in quality pouch packaging.
Common examples of design elements used in pouch package designs are
• illustrations of the ingredients
• photographs of the product
• background patterns
• texture overlays
• icons indicating the product's primary benefits
Visual cues are utilized to allow the customer to quickly determine what is in the pouch without having to read through a long description of the ingredient list.
Quick Tip: It is important for designers to not overcrowd the package with graphics.
Step 8: Consider Finishes and Print Effects
The various methods of printing flexible pouches come with many options for finishing so the design can be enhanced.
Some of the most common effects available for printing flexible pouch packaging include:
- Matte Coatings
- Gloss Coatings
- Spot UV Highlighting
- Metallic Foil Stamping
- Holographic Materials
As an example, the combination of matte pouches with gloss logos creates a high-end look.
Quick Tip: In order for finishing effects to be executed correctly, it is highly recommended that they are considered during the design layout and will therefore correspond properly to the artwork during the final image production.
Step 9: Prepare the File for Printing
Once you've completed the custom mylar pouch design, you'll need to prepare it for printing.
Typically when preparing for professional printing, you do the following items:
• Any fonts will be converted to outlines
• Any pictures will be embedded
• Verify that all colours are in CMYK
• Include bleed areas
• Verify that the resolution is 300 DPI
Designers should check their alignment against the die line to confirm that all critical components are within their safe zone.
Quick Tip: Properly preparing your files helps avoid production errors when printing.
Step 10: Review and Test the Design
Prior to beginning mass production, it is recommended that you test the pouch design by printing 100 to 200 bags.
Testing will verify:
• color accuracy
• text readability
• zipper alignment
• seal placement
• visual appeal
Simple adjustments made at this point can greatly increase the quality of the finished product.
Quick Tip: Many well-known companies have made many versions of their designs before settling on one design for their final packaging.
Overview
Designing pouch packaging starts with creating artwork on a pouch dieline template that shows the front panel, back panel, seals, and gussets. Designers place the logo, product name, and key selling points on the front panel while keeping important elements inside safe zones away from seals and folds. The design should use clear typography, strong color contrast, and simple visuals that make the product easy to recognize. Before printing, the artwork is prepared in high resolution with proper bleed, color settings, and alignment to ensure it prints correctly on the final pouch.
Final Thoughts
Creating pouch packaging involves more than designing appealing graphics. A successful prorated package design must take into consideration the structure of the package, how it will function, branding and the limitations with respect to how it can be produced.
Die-lines should be drawn correctly, the front panel should be laid out in an efficient manner, the seal areas should be designed around and the files submitted for printing should be prepared properly.
Pouch packaging that is well designed will not only provide protection for the product but can have a significant impact on the customer's decision to purchase that product.
If a pouch package is properly planned and designed with attention to detail, it can change the perception of the product from ordinary to something that is noticed by customers immediately.
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