Label design is one part of packaging design that primarily concerns the labeling; a piece of printed material that contains information about a certain product.
Like packaging design, label design is a way to drive your products off the shelves and into your customers’ carts.
In this article, we will give you 5 things that you need to consider when learning how to design a label. This will help you create label designs that are effective in communicating with customers and generating sales.
Since the most important function of labels is displaying product information, most of the label design tips that will be discussed in this article will focus more on enhancing important information so consumers won’t end up confused about what you’re selling.
While you are here, why not check out this detailed guide on Packaging design.
At their core, labels should inform consumers about the product. However, customers wouldn’t be able to get any info if the way the label is designed isn’t clear, rendering it useless.
This is why clarity goes first in this list as it is the most essential thing to consider in label design.
Since labels mostly contain text, it is important that the text is legible and large enough to be read from a comfortable distance.
The text should contrast the background to make it more apparent.
The general rule of thumb for this is if the background is dark, the text should be light, and vice versa. If the background has warm colors, the text should have cool colors; and vice versa.
Aside from the text’s appearance, the information within the text should also be brief and concise. This means not cramming all the info you can on the label and putting only the most important ones among the following:
To put it simply, consumers should know what the product is, what it’s made of, who or where it’s made, when it’s made and until when they can use it, how to use it, and if it’s the right product for them when they look at the label.
To check the label’s clarity, we highly suggest you do test prints and see if it works for you. If it looks good on the computer but the text looks too small or the color seems off when it’s printed, adjust accordingly.
Choosing the right font pairings to go hand in hand with clarity.
As a general rule, serif and sans serif fonts are preferred because they are readable and easier to understand than a script or stylized fonts. They also go well together. However, you can use the script or stylized fonts as long as it’s not too stylized that it becomes too difficult to read.
With that said, limit the number of your font styles to just 2. Having 3 or more font styles makes for a “visually cluttered” design.
And finally, play with font weights and sizes! You can adjust the text’s font size—make them thinner, bold, regular, and/or italicized.
You can also change the capitalization of the letters within the text. Texts that start with a capital letter followed by small letters look professional, texts in all-caps look more aggressive, while texts in lowercase look calmer.
Check out this list of 30 serif fonts for modern graphic designs.
Before you add any artistic element to your label design, you need to check if there’s already an existing brand style for your product. If there is, it’s best to just follow it so there’s consistency within your brand’s product line.
But in case there’s none, then you can come up with your own artistic touch to your label design.
The importance of adding artistic elements to your label design is catching the attention of consumers, standing out, and giving your brand some personality. You can do this by adding graphic design elements, illustrations, or images to your label.
For example, if you have different flavors for your product—say strawberry flavored juice—then adding images or illustrations of strawberries to the label can help communicate this specific flavor with consumers.
There are also colors that suit specific types of products, moods, or even flavors. With the strawberry juice example, you can use red or pink colors to highlight this flavor.
This part includes the size of the entire label and the spaces allocated for each component inside it. When creating the layouts for the labels, you can use front and/or back labels, wraparound labels, or labels that cover the entire product.
As mentioned earlier, the information shouldn’t be crammed.
Another way to solve this is by creating a layout with info hierarchy. You can put each type of info according to its order of importance.
If there’s a need to put long or extra info, you can put them at the back label so the front doesn’t look cluttered.
Another thing to consider to declutter info is using white space. Good use of white space is an essential part when you’re going for a minimalist label design as it makes it look clean and simple.
Tip: You can also utilize negative space to give your label design a unique twist.
Choosing the right printing material and method is kind of like the finishing touch in label design. You need to choose high-quality materials to make sure that the label is durable and that it doesn’t go off easily from the product.
You can have the label printed embossed, glossy, coated, matte, metallic, transparent, or opaque. You can even add embellishments to it, like foil, to give your label an accent.
To conclude...
Those are 5 business label design ideasthat will help drive your product off of store shelves in no time.
Putting attention to detail in label design also communicates attention to detail in product quality, and this can be greatly achieved with the graphic design services we offer at Graphics Zoo.
Get in touch with our professional graphic designers at support@graphicszoo.com.