Packaging plays a crucial role in the building of your brand. It’s often the first hands-on interaction customers have with your product, so it needs to send a message.

You may not think there’s much scope for variety in packaging — a box is just a box, right? Think again! Great packaging piques a customer’s interest, gives them an emotive experience, and helps you stand out from the crowd.

In this guide, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite packaging designs, to show you what’s really possible!

7 super memorable packaging designs

Packaging can stand out in many different ways. Sometimes it's about being bold and shouty, other times it's better to be quiet and refined — the approach you choose comes down to your brand’s visual language and what your competitors are doing, too.

andSons Chocolatiers

We’re starting strong in our inspiration line-up with this incredible packaging design for LA-based chocolate company, andSons. This design could be just as much at home in MoMa as your local grocery store, don’t you agree?

What’s especially memorable about this packaging design is that it doesn’t feel like a chocolate box. There’s very little obvious text, denoting flavor, ingredients, or cocoa-percentage. And while this approach can be risky — will people know what you’re offering? — there’s no doubt that it creates an unforgettable experience.

Halo Brewery

Craft beer is an ever-busier market to operate in. These days, it’s flooded with color and quirky illustrations — and what once was differentiating, is all starting to look a bit same-same.

But Halo Brewery has built a rationale into their adventurous, attention-seeking design. Not only are the labels bright, bold and punchy (a bit like their beers!), but the iconography of each is also used in their online store, helping shoppers to find the can they’re after.

That is a super smart, and super memorable, way to use your packaging.

SD _ Halo Brewery website iconography.jpg

Bricos

Sometimes you have to let the product speak for itself, especially if your target market likes things matter-of-fact.

Bricos’ tool packaging is simple yet effective –– the brand’s bold stripes on a white backdrop would likely cut-through in a busy hardware store fixture. Proof that you don’t need elaborate, embellished packs to give your brand impact.

Romero & McPaul

From spanners to slippers… is there anything more decadent than fancy footwear?

The designers for Romero & McPaul knew that the act of opening a product can be as much of an experience as actually using it. That’s why these luxury slippers are housed in a lush dust ruffle, inside an elegant box. The layering of packaging adds an element of theatre to the unboxing, especially important for high-end goods to help elevate status and justify expense.

Glossier

The online shopping boom has given packaging design a new challenge. Now, not only should your packaging be impactful and engaging in real life, it also needs to be eye-catching when seen in a teeny, tiny, thumbnail on a shopper’s screen.

Glossier has achieved this excellently, using sleek, simple, and sophisticated packaging where — even online — the pack copy is clear to read on most major SKUs. The packaging shapes, structures, copy and pops of color all add up to help customers browse the range and re-find their favorites easily.

Pod & Parcel

Pod & Parcel sell biodegradable and compostable Nespresso-compatible coffee pods — and that much is clear from their fun, contemporary packaging design! We love the use of pod silhouettes to not only create a dynamic pattern, but to differentiate the packaging from coffee sold in other forms.

What’s unique and memorable about your product or brand? This insight could be a great place to start when designing your box, wrapper, bottle or any other packaging!

Little Rituals

If your product is available to buy online or as a direct-to-consumer subscription, then secondary packaging is just as (if not more!) important than the primary pack. Little Rituals, a kids vitamin and herbal tea brand, offers a masterclass in secondary packaging design — it’s friendly, informal and, best of all, encourages interaction upon opening.

When done right, packaging can be so much more than a functional way to keep your product safe. It can be an opportunity to entertain and educate, as Little Rituals does here. And when you can achieve that, your brand’s visual identity will live on in people’s minds.