So, You’re Designing Custom Product Labels?

Labels are the face of your product. In some ways, they’re more important than the product itself. Studies in the food industry alone have shown that labelling influences customers of all ages, genders, and economic standings.  So how do you make sure customers aren’t strolling past your item in the store (or scrolling past your listing on a website)? You need to have an attractive and functional label.  Unlike logos, labels combine a lot of different design elements. Labels are a composite design of multiple elements that all need to come together flawlessly lest the whole effort be ruined.  Crafting an excellent logo likely looks deceptively simple. At a glance, labels may just seem like “pictures” that mark products, but the level of care that needs to go into them is tremendous. Throw your product onto store shelves with a weak label and you’ll have an uphill battle to recover from the negative impact. 

Labels stand out

You walk a fine line when designing a label. It needs to be bold, energetic and on brand. Yet at the same time, it needs to be substantially different from competing labels. And when competing brands are also trying to be bold, energetic and on brand, you need to pull out all the creative stops to ensure your label makes a mark. Remember that even a spot-on label will be ineffective if another company has already crafted a very similar label.  A label is what should, at a glance, differentiate your product from the competition. Unless you’re a pioneer in your field, odds are you’ve got a few competitors out there with similar products. Your product may be the best, but not all customers are going to take the time to really parse the differences while they’re shopping. You need a recognizable label that will instantly sway them to your side. 

The two pillars of powerful labels

A good label needs to fulfill two functions: it has to be attractive to the customer, and it has to be informative. Leaning too heavily on one aspect at the expense of the other can cost you sales. A flashy, intriguing label may be great, but if it doesn’t communicate any information about the product, then customers may become frustrated and pass it by for a more clearly labelled product. At the same time, cramming an in depth description of your product’s components and advantages onto a label won’t win you any favors, either. The key is elegance in design. To design the perfect label you need to decide on the key elements you’re trying to get across, be that style, information, or product usage. Then you need to come up with the most concise and efficient way possible to convey those messages in your label. At the end of the day, you’re going to be taking a hatchet to your design trying to make it more concise, not the other way around. So let’s take a closer look at how to come up with a truly stunning label design that you’ll be using for years to come!

So, how do you design a stellar label?

Your individual label-designing process may vary, but here is a good starting list of steps for creating an effective and outstanding label. 

• Research your audience – Before you start designing anything, make sure you know your customers. Who are you trying to sell to? It can be tempting to jump in as soon as you have a product ready to go, but a little market research can go a long way here. If you’re redesigning for an existing product, look for feedback from current customers. What drew them to your product? What made them choose yours over others’? If you’re redesigning your product labelling, then there’s likely a new demographic you’re trying to attract; be sure your updated label reflects this. This kind of research can also have practical effects. For example, if you’re marketing a product for the elderly, make sure your labels are clear and use larger fonts so they are more accessible to the visually impaired. Are you selling to children? Simple, colorful designs will go over much better. The key is: know your audience from the beginning and the design process will be easier and quicker. 

• Gather your elements – Do you have any elements that are already completed? Assemble beforehand any fonts, logos, or images that you already know will need a place in your label. Depending on the product, this may also include barcodes, ingredients lists, disclaimers and other required label elements. You should also pick one “attention-grabbing” piece of information about your product to include. Maybe your bread is gluten-free or your brewing company is the oldest in North America. Pick what makes your product special and differentiates it from the rest. 

• Decide on a tone – It’s important to know the tone your label is going for before you commit too much to the design process. If you’re hiring a graphic design team or artist to handle any part of your label, you’ll want to be up front with them about the tone you’re going for. Mismatched product and label tones can really damage sales. Slapping a cute, bubbly label for a dark draft beer may not resonate well with your audience. First, think of your target audience and then try to pinpoint an aesthetic that they’ll be drawn to. The wider your audience, the more wiggle room you’ll have in this area. 

• Match the label to your product brand –Similar to step two, you should always assess any potential label design against your overall brand. If your company markets itself and all your other products as fun and family-friendly, then you want to make sure the label you’re designing reflects that, as well. There may be cause for some wiggle room here, depending on your company. If you offer different products for vastly different audiences, then feel free to differentiate your labels from one another. 

• Draft multiple arrangements – There’s going to be a massive difference between how your design looks on a computer screen and how it appears on physical paper. Many designs look fine on the screen and then utterly fail once they’ve been printed. Prepare to design multiple tests before you settle on the design you want to go with. Once you have a design that looks good, be sure to print a physical copy to double check. 

Additional tips

There’s a lot to consider when you’re drafting your labels. Even as you follow the previous steps, be sure to keep the following considerations in mind. 

1. Remember white space
   • There’s no prize for using all the space on your label. White space is vital to the visual design of your labelling. Experiment with different levels of white space to see which gives your label the greatest impact. Don’t feel that you have to add more to your design just because there is white space left on the label. Simplicity is key. 
2. Prioritize readability
   • You should always put legibility in front of design. People aren’t going to spend minutes on end trying to decipher your label’s font. Make sure everything is readable and easy to decipher. 
   • This mostly applies to the fonts that you choose. However, you should also keep an eye on the placement of pictures and the overall size of your label. Remember that what looks completely readable on your computer screen may be illegible once put to physical paper.
3. Consider your label’s placement
   • How big is your label going to be? And where on your product will it be placed? If your label is going to be relatively small compared to your product, then it will need to be even more eye catching. Conversely, a large label should be extremely simple or you’ll overwhelm your customers’ eyes. 
   • Consider also whether your label will be placed high, middle or low on your product. This may change where you place pictures, words, or how you try to draw the customer’s eye-line. For example, a label that draws the customers eyes upwards should probably be placed lower on a product; very neutral and symmetrical “blocked” label designs tend to do well in the center of products, and so on. 
4. Create information flow
   • Each element of your label design should command a different amount of attention. In general, you want your “attention grabber” to be the most noticeable, with your product name, company name, and informational content following at decreasing levels of emphasis. 
   • This order might change depending on your product. Decide before you begin designing which elements are the most important. If you ignore this aspect of label design and give each element equal weight, people will be overwhelmed by your label. Remember, you only have a few seconds to make an impression. 
   • Another part of information flow is eyeline. A properly designed label will guide a customer’s eyes from one element to the next. Smart use of element placement, lines and colors will create a “story” on your label that draws the human eye from one element to the next, hopefully in the order you intended. Remember that people generally comprehend visual design like they read, starting from the top and going from left to right. 
   • Keep in mind that some of these “reading” habits differ amongst cultures. If your product is getting ready for an international release, make sure you’re designing with every market in mind. 
5. Choose vectors over pixels
   • This might sound obtuse, but it’s very important. If you need to resize images or do any fiddling with your design, programs like Photoshop are not your friends because they don’t deal well with vectors. Choose something like Illustrator instead. Vector-based designs can be more easily manipulated with no resulting pixelation. There’s nothing worse than completing a design and then having to start over because you can’t make small changes without horrible pixelation. 
6. Semiotics in graphic design
   • There’s a rhyme and a reason to designing labels. After all, this is basically a part of your marketing, and marketing is a persuasive art. This means that you’ll want to consider the theory of semiotics in your design choices. 
   • Simply put, semiotics refers to the art of using signs or signifiers in design to elicit certain reactions or desires in your audience. Everything visual is a sign to some extent. When you create your label, do some research on the colors, symbols and design elements that will speak the most clearly to your audience. 
   • For a simple example, look at colors. The label on a high-end perfume may choose purple and gold to encourage feelings of luxury and royalty. Your fonts are also important. Do you go for something flowy and elegant? Or something bold and sturdy? Everything depends on your product and your target audience. 
   • Disrupting the general rules of semiotics can also lead to some creative label-making if you do it right. Using bold, aggressive signifiers for your elegant perfume could create an effective sense of originality and tongue-in-cheek attitude. Whatever your design, make sure it is intentional. 
7. Don’t forget your contact information!
   • Use your label as additional marketing for your brand. Your product label can be a great way to drive extra traffic to your website. Some labels also include Instagram, Facebook or Twitter handles. 
   • Including your contact information on your labelling will open you up to some criticism (people are always more likely to reach out to you if they were disappointed). However, this can be an excellent option for improving relationships with customers and perhaps even improving your product.