The brief: what the product says first
For Ikonic Beer, the brief combined identity work with packaging. The work included a refreshed logo, packaging illustration and print-production specifications for the limited-edition release. A younger, more confident look had to run through all of it.
For your product, the front panel needs a clear reading order. Name first. Then the product detail and the illustration. We agree where each one sits before the concepts start. Those choices give you something concrete to judge when the concepts arrive.
Bring the existing pack, your product details and the setting where you intend to sell it. We also need the format, the number of pieces and your printer's requirements. List each label, outer box and variant you need, so the brief accounts for the whole job.
Your existing identity gives the design its starting point. If that needs work, we agree it before developing the pack. Our brand identity and design service covers that foundation. For Ikonic, refreshing the logo was part of the work; your packaging brief may already have a logo and visual system ready to use.
Concepts you can choose between
We develop two or three concepts from the agreed brief. Each explores how the product name, illustration and information could share the pack. You get distinct directions to discuss before we commit to finished artwork.
The decision needs more than a favourite colour. Read the name, identify the variant, then look at the supporting information. If the illustration draws all your attention and the product becomes hard to identify, we have something specific to fix. A strong image still has to share the panel.
We discuss each concept against the same brief. A bolder direction may suit the intended character of a limited edition. A quieter one may give the product name more room. Tell us what you notice first, what you struggle to read and which treatment feels right for the product.
You choose the direction we develop. We then settle its type, colour and illustration treatment before extending the artwork across the agreed pieces.
One release or a family of products
Ikonic centred on one limited-edition release. Paris Caseificio Artigianale, an Italian artisan cheesemaker, asked us for a pack design that could carry every flavour it makes. That called for a system that separates what changes from what stays put.
Every Paris flavour has its own colour and typographic accent, while the logo lockup, ingredient panel and regulatory zone stay in the same positions across the range. You can see the range logic in the artwork itself, from the changing flavour treatments to the shared layout.
For your range, we decide those rules before treating every variant as a separate design. We identify the elements that carry your identity, then give the product differences their own space. A longer flavour name or a fuller ingredient list needs a place in that plan.
Tell us about the additions you expect to make, including any new pack formats. We can allow for those differences when developing the template and identify where a future product may need a different layout. The quote lists the variants included. Later flavours then start from the same system instead of from scratch.
Room for the ingredient panel
We reserve space for the ingredient panel while the layout is still open. Send the approved copy with the brief, and tell us where the product will be sold.
For UK food packaging with an ingredients list, Article 21 of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 requires allergens in that list to be emphasised through typesetting, for example font, style or background colour.
We build that emphasis into the artwork alongside the pack's type and colour choices. If a decorative treatment makes the emphasis hard to see, we change the treatment. The panel gets the same design attention as the front of the pack.
You supply signed-off wording. During artwork review, we compare that copy with the layout, checking the text, its emphasis and its position. We also look at the panel at its intended print size, as part of the complete pack.
Your food labelling specialist approves the wording and what each market requires. We lay out that approved text. Approving the wording and choosing the design are two separate sign-offs.
From approved artwork to the printer
Once you choose a direction, we take it through to production-ready files. We confirm the dimensions, cut edges and folds against the printer's dieline before finalising the layout. That fits the design to the real surface being printed.
We check the pack panel by panel at its intended size. Look at where the name sits, how the illustration meets the edges and how the approved text fits on the remaining surfaces. For a range, we review the variants together as well as individually, including the one with the longest name or most text.
The print spec sheet records the production choices alongside the artwork. We confirm the material, finish and print method with your vendor so those instructions reflect how the piece will be made. Once you approve the artwork, the files and spec sheet go straight from us to that vendor.
Packaging work is quoted per project. Piece count, finishing and print method shape the scope. We establish those choices before completing the artwork; if you change the format, we review which files need to change with it.
Our physical music work includes Rhapsody Of Fire's 2019 album The Eighth Mountain: sleeve, booklet and identity elements. For Steven Chelliah's Fuzasian, we created the album artwork and complete digipack design. Both appear in the work below.
Put packaging obligations in the brief
Production planning should also allow for packaging obligations. The GOV.UK guidance on UK packaging extended producer responsibility, checked on 26 October 2026, includes two thresholds: annual worldwide turnover of £1 million or more, and more than 25 tonnes of packaging supplied or imported in the UK in the previous year.
Those thresholds are part of the eligibility criteria, not a calculation of what you owe. Ask whoever handles your packaging obligations to check the full guidance and confirm what applies to your business.
Tell us who is doing that check and pass on what they confirm. We work it into the print specification, so the artwork matches the packaging plan you approved.
