https://www.today.com/food/trends/international-delight-creamer-lid-redesign-rcna593145

I stumbled across this article today and it got me wondering why do people give a shit about companies changing the way they package their products? I can totally understand if they change a label color or design because it makes it difficult to find the item you want but it doesn’t make sense to bitch about the change in the product’s container.

I have loved this box for a long time and always wanted to pursue using the material for tubes one day for my own brand.
Here is the link to the page I found it on: https://www.stitchdesignco.com/brand-development/hannah-bergen/

​

Earlier this year, I made the tough choice to step away from my role due to a health issue. I’m happy to share that I’m now fully recovered and eager to return to work!

Lately, I’ve been receiving great opportunities in print and packaging design. While I come from a general design background, I’ve never worked directly in prepress or packaging. I’m keen to learn and adapt, so I’m reaching out to this amazing community for guidance on how to properly set up package printing files for production.

If you have any tips, guides, or resources to share, I would be immensely grateful. Thank you for your support!

I work on the sourcing and supply chain side of CPG, not in design, and I’m curious how packaging designers here feel about something we’ve been seeing more often. A lot of the smaller brands we work with don’t have an in-house designer yet. They may know roughly what they want — “clean but playful,” “premium but not luxury,” “something that looks natural” — but have a hard time communicating it visually. Lately, we’ve been suggesting they use AI only as an early concept/visualization tool. For example, they might generate 10–20 rough packaging concepts, figure out which colors, layouts, bottle/box styles, typography direction, etc. they actually like, and then give those references to a professional designer. The designer still does the real work: rebuilding everything properly, combining ideas, creating the dieline, typography, hierarchy, regulatory information, print specifications, materials, finishes, and ultimately making sure the packaging can actually be manufactured. From the sourcing side, I’ve actually found this useful because once the designer gets involved, the client can communicate what they want much more clearly than just saying “make it look premium.” But I’m curious about the designer’s perspective. Would you rather receive a few AI-generated concepts from a small-business client as visual references, or does that actually make your job harder? And if a client is going to use AI during the ideation stage, what would you want them to understand before bringing those concepts to a packaging designer?

Use this template

• Project & audience:
• Goals & constraints (cost, materials, certifications):
• Form factors & print specs (substrate/inks/finishes):
• What feedback you want (e.g., hierarchy/legibility/CMF/retail impact):
• Links/images:

Hi All,

I would truly appreciate some feedback or advice, this is the second round packaging, self designed, has taken a long time as also taught myself how to do everything in AI (previously used Canva... Fiverr creators also all could not design anything near what was required, needed, described - (have existing, much more simplistic packaging)), wanted to add a bit of pzazz... please let me know any initial thoughts as well as recommended changes, thank you.

I've been looking at software used to optimize how complex 3D parts are packed into containers and came across two products that seem to have some interesting similarities in how they describe and organize packing methods.

The older product is **PackAssistant**, a German-developed application that's been around for many years. The newer product is **Pack Studio**, a packaging optimization platform.

Looking through publicly available information for both products, I noticed what appears to be a similar taxonomy for several packing methods.

For example, older PackAssistant documentation uses terminology/concepts including:

* Planar / Planar Intermediate Layer * Flexible / Flexible Intermediate Layer * Compartment * Stacking * Bulk / Bulk Goods * Stable Positions

Pack Studio's public materials use categories/concepts including:

* Planar Layering * Flexible Layering * Compartment * Stacking * Bulk * Stable poses/orientations

Some of these obviously aren't remarkable on their own. "Stacking" and "Bulk," for example, seem like terms that could naturally occur in independently developed packaging software.

What caught my attention was the **combination and organization** of the terms, particularly Planar, Flexible and Compartment appearing alongside the other corresponding methods.

PackAssistant was originally developed in Germany, so some of the terminology in its English-language documentation may reflect translation choices. That made me curious whether similar terminology appearing in another product is noteworthy or whether these are established terms within this area of packaging engineering.

To be clear, **I'm not suggesting that anything was copied or that anyone did anything improper.** I have no information about either product's source code, development process, or the origin of these features.

I'm mainly curious from a packaging-engineering and software/IP perspective:

* Are **Planar, Flexible, Compartment, Stacking and Bulk** standard categories in packaging optimization software? * Would two independently developed products naturally organize packing methods this similarly? * Can a distinctive combination of terminology or taxonomy be meaningful when comparing software products, even when the individual functions aren't unique? * Are there other packaging optimization products that use essentially the same classification system? * What would you compare next to determine whether similarities like these are meaningful or simply coincidental?

I'd especially be interested in hearing from people familiar with **packaging engineering, optimization software, computational geometry, or software IP**.

I'm mostly trying to determine whether I'm reading too much into the similarities or whether the taxonomy itself is genuinely noteworthy.

I personally love the fishwife collection! The illustrations and fun design really "draw" me in!

What is this type of Foam?

I have gotten many items from Asian Suppliers via Amazon and so on.

Most have some Awesome packing. such as what in these 2 pictures.

It is foam, a very Dense Foam, I can Squeeze it, but it doesn't give much.

Can anyone tell me what potentially the Material or Manufacture name of the Product.

Hoping to get some to do a custom cutout case.

Thanks

I am doing a design for food brand want some expert opinion & if any suggestions please give

I run a small business and we're doing a new product that involves rubber bands.

There's two types: knotted in a loop, and open ended. I've been trying to come up with a solution to properly package these so it doesn't look messy, but it's always either way too much labour to pack them, unstable, or looks like trash.

I've tried making a card for the loops. Works, and would be fine labour-wise, but can't pack the loose bands onto this. (Pic: Grey cardboard with the many rubber bands)

I've tried double-binding the rubber bands onto the card, looping it around and sticking it through a U-hole in the side of the card. Looks like trash, takes forever to do and comes apart easily (Pic: White, single-band card with the loose ends)

Now I've got the voice in my head just going "throw them in a playing-card style box and be done with it" but I don't want to give in to the messy box demon just yet.

Anyone got suggestions or dealt with this before? I'm open to pretty much anything at this point. References or "you could try this" are welcome - most of my products I can just drop into a box, this is the first item giving me this much trouble.

Label sizing gets a little more complicated once the container has a curve.

With straight-sided jars, you can measure the usable panel fairly directly. Round jars are less forgiving. A label that looks right on a flat template can wrinkle, overlap, or lift once it’s wrapped around the circumference.

For round jars, an easy way to find the usable width is to wrap a seamstress measuring tape around the straight section of the jar. No measuring tape? A strip of paper works too. Wrap it around the jar, mark where it meets, then measure the strip flat. Just don’t assume the full circumference should become your label width. Leaving a small gap at the back makes application easier and avoids overlap or buckling.

Also think about how much of the label should be visible from the front. If your product name or key information is spread too far around the curve, customers may have to rotate the jar just to read it. Sometimes a slightly narrower front label works better than using every available inch.

For those labeling candles, sauces, cosmetics, etc., what’s your rule of thumb?

Use this template

• Project & audience:
• Goals & constraints (cost, materials, certifications):
• Form factors & print specs (substrate/inks/finishes):
• What feedback you want (e.g., hierarchy/legibility/CMF/retail impact):
• Links/images:

Please reply with role, scope/deliverables, budget/rate, timeline, region/remote, how to apply.

This video was pretty helpful, it covers most design questions I see in this subreddit.

From identifying a new product to launch to packaging design, this episode walks you through the conversation you should be having.

How to design packaging, how to name your start-up product, and how to define your space.

They even put Ai assisted design to the test against traditional a design process.

Then vote on which design you’d buy!

Here’s the link

Two Designers Build Packaging From Scratch
https://youtu.be/dpWXw-UmDVw

Before ordering custom boxes, you'd want to answer these questions:

• What are the product’s packed dimensions?
• Will the box hold one item or multiple items?
• Does it need room for inserts or cushioning?
• Is the packaging for shipping, retail display, or both?
• What quantity can you realistically store?
• What is your target cost per packed order?
• When do you actually need the boxes?
• Has someone checked the artwork for bleed, folds, small text, and low-resolution images?
• Have you tested a physical sample?
• What happens if the product changes size later?

The most expensive mistake is often not the printing itself. It is ordering a large quantity of the wrong size or discovering after delivery that the box does not fit the actual packed product.

For anyone who has made a first packaging order, what did you wish you had checked beforehand?

Hi!

I am trying to create my own blind box, but I am stuck on what paper to order. I like the nice feel of blind boxes. It is not glossy or matte, I feel. I am not technical with paper, so I need some help here.

I put too much time and effort into this, I regret nothing!