How to write a food packaging design brief that is actually useful...
By Mark Hooper
How to write a food packaging design brief that is actually useful...
By Mark Hooper
Packaging briefs often contain plenty of dimensions and surprisingly little direction. Pack size: useful. Print specification: useful. Mandatory copy: definitely useful. “Make it feel premium” is definitely less useful!
A strong food packaging design brief explains the commercial job before prescribing the creative answer. Start with the person buying it. Not simply “health-conscious consumers” or “busy families”, but the actual context in which the decision is being made. What are they choosing between? Where are they buying? What matters in that moment?
A product discovered in a farm shop behaves differently from one competing in a crowded supermarket fixture. A product bought as a treat has a different job from one thrown into the basket every Tuesday. Context matters.
Then explain what needs to win. What should someone understand within a few seconds? Perhaps provenance is the reason to believe. Perhaps flavour is the hero. Perhaps the product offers a genuinely easier way to do something. Perhaps the brand needs to justify a higher price.
The designer needs to know what deserves visual priority. Competitive context matters too. Packaging should never be briefed in isolation. Which brands sit beside you? Which conventions help customers understand what the product is? Which have become so familiar that there is an opportunity to behave differently?
Distinctiveness does not mean ignoring category cues. It means knowing which ones to use and which ones to challenge. And think beyond the first pack. If more flavours, formats or products are coming, say so. A design that works beautifully for one SKU can collapse when stretched across twelve. Future range plans should influence the system from the beginning.
Finally, be honest about constraints. Production methods, substrates, retailer requirements, legal information and budgets all shape what is possible. Constraints are not the enemy of creativity. Hidden constraints are.
A good food packaging design brief gives the creative team enough strategic clarity to explore confidently – and enough practical reality to ensure the final idea can actually make it onto a shelf.
Packaging briefs often contain plenty of dimensions and surprisingly little direction. Pack size: useful. Print specification: useful. Mandatory copy: definitely useful. “Make it feel premium” is definitely less useful!
A strong food packaging design brief explains the commercial job before prescribing the creative answer. Start with the person buying it. Not simply “health-conscious consumers” or “busy families”, but the actual context in which the decision is being made. What are they choosing between? Where are they buying? What matters in that moment?
A product discovered in a farm shop behaves differently from one competing in a crowded supermarket fixture. A product bought as a treat has a different job from one thrown into the basket every Tuesday. Context matters.
Then explain what needs to win. What should someone understand within a few seconds? Perhaps provenance is the reason to believe. Perhaps flavour is the hero. Perhaps the product offers a genuinely easier way to do something. Perhaps the brand needs to justify a higher price.
The designer needs to know what deserves visual priority. Competitive context matters too. Packaging should never be briefed in isolation. Which brands sit beside you? Which conventions help customers understand what the product is? Which have become so familiar that there is an opportunity to behave differently?
Distinctiveness does not mean ignoring category cues. It means knowing which ones to use and which ones to challenge. And think beyond the first pack. If more flavours, formats or products are coming, say so. A design that works beautifully for one SKU can collapse when stretched across twelve. Future range plans should influence the system from the beginning.
Finally, be honest about constraints. Production methods, substrates, retailer requirements, legal information and budgets all shape what is possible. Constraints are not the enemy of creativity. Hidden constraints are.
A good food packaging design brief gives the creative team enough strategic clarity to explore confidently – and enough practical reality to ensure the final idea can actually make it onto a shelf.