Effective Label Design: Keep It Simple
Designing an effective product label is important to ensuring that you will have a product that is able to catch the consumer's eye and convey your brand image. Some brand-owners assume that in order for a product label to be effective, it needs to be totally unique - packed with information and an unusual design style.
Well, the truth is that complicated is not best or necessarily productive, from a sales perspective. Designing an effective, eye-catching label isn't always about how much you can cram into a certain amount of space. More often, it's about how well the elements work together to communicate your message to your potential customers. To help you avoid designing and printing a cluttered, busy, and overly-complicated label, we have a few tips and questions to ask yourself during the design process.
Label Design Shouldn’t Be Complicated
One of the most difficult aspects of designing a label is understanding when enough is enough. One piece of advice that we offer to many of our clients:
“Just because you can add a certain design element to your label, doesn't always mean that you should.”
Some of the most effective custom product labels are clean, concise, and to the point. It may be tempting to fit as much flair and information as possible on your custom labels (i.e. product facts, benefits, brand story, social icons, QR codes, etc...), but it may not always be the best decision - we suggest that "less is more" in most cases.
For example, while a shiny metallic label in an unusual shape might look really cool on your product packaging, it doesn't necessarily mean that it will work in the real world. You’ll need to ask yourself if the label:
will actually adhere to the container properly
will be too busy to easily convey your message
will allow for proper presentation of the brand imaging or product information.
A balanced and simple product label design can be just as effective (if not more so), than a label that tries to do too much.
Make Sure The Product Label Flows With the Packaging
While it is okay to design a uniquely shaped label for your product, you need to make sure that the label shape will flow with the shape of the packaging. Never guess at the size or shape of a product label – having labels designed and printed without proper testing can be an expensive mistake. Similarly, never buy containers without seeing a physical sample first. Some client have learned the hard way that what they saw in a photo online was no replacement for holding one and making sure it worked the way they expected. Yes, it can take time – but rushing any project this important can be a disaster. Once you have your sample packaging in hand, this brings us to our final recommendation.
Test Multiple Designs By Printing Test Labels
Sometimes we have clients who want to test multiple different product label designs before making the final decision on which design to print for their products. Trying to visualize how a label design will look after it has been printed is never as simple as looking at the design on a computer screen and assuming that the printed result will look identical, as colors vary significantly between computer monitors and printers of all kinds. This is why we always recommend printing out a full-size artwork proof on your desktop printer (which will at least allow you to test the size and layout), even if the colors are unlikely to be exactly be the same as how our presses will print. If you want to see a variety of label designs before committing to one, we offer press-produced Concept Proofs that you can use to compare your different design approaches and apply them to your containers for a real test.
Always take the time to think through each design aspect of your product label. It's important to understand when you have enough, and when excess imaging or information on a label becomes a liability versus a benefit. A product (or its label) does not need to be unique in order to be competitive. Often times, designing a clean and simple label design that presents the product in a way that doesn't need a lot of time to understand is the most effective path.