Nothing compares to unboxing your packaging design, fresh from the printers.

It’s such a buzz to see your hard work come to life in the shape of a bag, box, bottle, tag, or any other kind of packaging format. There’s a lot of anticipation in that moment — will you be happy with the finish? Is the logo big enough? Does it give that “wow factor”?

If you’re impressed with your packaging design, chances are your customers will be as well. And it’s here that packaging design mockups come in so useful. With a mockup, you can double-check the dimensions of your design and really start to predict how it will look when it’s in shoppers’ hands.

Mockups help stop design mistakes from going into print, saving you time and money as well.

What exactly is a packaging mockup and where can you get your hands on one?

A packaging mockup is a digital representation of your physical packaging design, be it a fabric tote bag, a paper tea box, or a glass bottle. The purpose of a mockup is to illustrate the final end result of your packaging design, when it’s printed up and ready to go.

If you think about it, you’ll have been creating mockups of various fidelities all through the design process — first you sketched out your initial ideas, then perhaps you made a mood board, then you created flat artwork (i.e. on Photoshop or some other software). But if you jump straight from flat art to the printers, you might not like what you get back in return.

Designs can look totally different on a Photoshop canvas compared to a 3D piece of packaging. And by creating a quick mockup, you’ve got an opportunity to check you’re happy with the outcome.

When your business is your passion, and your passion is your business, your packaging is something you really want to get right.

Sounds great! So where do I get a mockup from?

Some business owners and designers choose to create their own packaging mockups.

For this, you’ll need Photoshop (or other premium photo editing software), a professional-grade camera and a blank version of your chosen packaging format(s).
Take a snap of the packaging, export it to Photoshop and drop in your branding.

Sounds easy, right? Well... there’s a little more to making your own mockups than that.

We’d suggest using studio lighting wherever possible as well. If you’ve ever tried to take product shots on a cloudy or overcast day, you’ll know how blue or grey the images can come out. Equally, it’s easy to bleach out the shot if the sun is too strong! Studio lighting eliminates any variables in light quality and hue, producing better quality images overall.

For even a basic at-home studio set-up, you’ll need a tripod for your camera and a couple of reflectors, too.

So DIY mockups are an option, but they aren’t the easiest option available...

Using Street Designed’s packaging mockups to test drive your design

At Street Designed, we’re all too familiar with the trials and tribulations of packaging design. We also know how important packaging is for a small and growing business like yours.

That’s why we’ve created our own collection of packaging design mockups to share with you. All you need to do is download the file — no reflectors necessary! Fellow designers may even find these files useful, to save them the extra work.

Here’s how to get started:

Navigate your way to our ‘Digital downloads’ shop page, then filter by ‘Mockups’
Select the packaging format you want to test drive and add it to your cart
Once you’ve purchased the file, all you need to do is open it in Photoshop and start playing around — we’ve made things as simple as possible, with color-coded layers to keep your screen organized.

Not too confident using Photoshop? Don’t worry! Each download comes with easy-to-follow instructions, covering how to add your design to the file, how to change the background and how to edit other variables too.

We’re also more than happy to assist in any questions you may have — just drop us a line.

Leave your packaging design in expert hands

There’s a lot riding on your packaging design. Even in our ultra-digital world, physical packaging plays an invaluable role in advertising your brand, establishing credibility, wow-ing your customers and, of course, keeping your product safe!

Book your free consultation with the Street Designed team today, and let’s chat about taking your packaging design from vision, to mockup and into reality!