Food packaging design

Packaging designed to compete.

Great food packaging has a lot of work to do.

It needs to get noticed, communicate what makes your product different, make the range easy to understand and give customers a reason to choose you.

And it has to do all of that while working within the practical realities of packaging formats, production, legislation, retailers and budgets.

We’ve been designing packaging for food and drink brands for over two decades, from first products for ambitious founders to extensive ranges for established brands.

Talk to us about your packaging

More than something to put your product in

Packaging is often where your brand has to work hardest.

On a crowded shelf, you’ve got seconds to communicate what the product is, who it’s for and why someone should pick it up.

Online, that same pack might be reduced to a thumbnail surrounded by competing products.

Then there are retailers, ingredients, nutritional information, claims, barcodes, production requirements and everything else that needs to fit onto it.

Good packaging design brings all of that together.

We combine brand thinking, creative design and practical packaging experience to create packs that look distinctive while doing their job properly.

Launching a new food or drink product?

Give your product the best possible start.

You’ve developed the product. Now you need to turn it into something customers can recognise, understand and buy.

For new food brands, we can help with the whole process, from positioning and identity through to the finished packaging.

That means thinking beyond an individual pack.

We’ll consider how the brand might grow, what happens when product two arrives and how the visual system can develop as you add flavours, formats and ranges.

Brand strategy and positioning
Naming and identity
Packaging concepts
Product and range architecture
Pack design
Artwork and production
Launch creative

Talk to us about launching your product

Refreshing an existing range?

Sometimes the product has moved on faster than the packaging.

Perhaps the brand has grown but the packaging still looks like a startup.

Maybe competitors have caught up.

Your range might have become difficult to navigate, or your positioning has changed and the packaging no longer communicates what makes the product special.

You don’t necessarily need to throw everything away.

We can assess what’s working, identify what’s holding the brand back and evolve or redesign the packaging accordingly.

The result is a stronger pack without losing the recognition and equity you’ve already built.

Packaging audits
Packaging redesign
Brand evolution
Range rationalisation
Product architecture
Retail-ready creative

Growing the range?

Design a packaging system, not a collection of individual packs.

Adding new products sounds simple until the range starts growing.

Different flavours, sizes, formats, product types and sub-ranges can quickly create inconsistency and confusion.

Good packaging architecture creates rules for how the range works.

It establishes what’s consistent, what changes and how customers distinguish between different products without losing sight of the master brand.

We help food and drink brands build packaging systems that are designed to grow.

New SKUs
Range extensions
NPD
Sub-ranges
Product hierarchy
Packaging guidelines
Artwork rollout

See it before you make it

AI-assisted exploration and visualisation.

New creative tools are changing how quickly packaging ideas can be explored.

We use AI within our creative process where it adds value, helping our designers investigate visual territories, develop concepts, explore imagery and visualise ideas before committing significant budget to production.

That can allow us to explore more possibilities earlier in the project and iterate promising directions faster.

It can also help founders and brand teams understand how an idea might feel in the real world before investing in photography, illustration, prototyping or production.

AI doesn’t make the creative decisions.

Our designers do.

We use it as another tool to help us explore, test and develop ideas more efficiently.

More exploration. Faster iteration. Less wasted production budget.

Packaging that works beyond the design studio

Because eventually somebody has to make it.

There’s a big difference between designing an attractive packaging concept and creating packaging that can actually be produced.

We’ve been working with printers, packaging suppliers and manufacturers for decades.

We understand artwork, cutters, print processes, substrates, finishes and the practical compromises that sometimes have to be made between the creative ambition and the realities of production.

We’ll work with your packaging suppliers and other partners to help move designs from concept through to finished artwork.

And if something changes later, we’re still here.

Sustainable packaging

Better choices start at the beginning.

Sustainability isn’t a design trend.

Material choice, pack format, production methods, inks, finishes, recyclability, weight and waste can all influence the environmental impact of packaging.

Where appropriate, we’ll work with you and your packaging suppliers to explore options that reduce unnecessary materials and make recycling or reuse easier without compromising the effectiveness of the pack.

We also understand that sustainability has to work commercially.

The right solution needs to balance environmental considerations with product protection, production, availability, retailer requirements and cost.

Our role is to help you make informed choices rather than simply make something look environmentally friendly.

Packaging for the real world

A pack rarely exists in isolation.

It might need to work:

On a supermarket shelf
In a wholesale catalogue
On an ecommerce website
As a tiny product image on a mobile
Inside a case or multipack
Across dozens of SKUs
In retailer presentations
At exhibitions and food shows
Across social and advertising

We consider these applications during the design process so that the identity isn’t dependent on one perfect mock-up to work.

From concept to rollout

We can support as much or as little of the packaging process as you need.

What’s also important is that we can jump on board wherever you are on your journey. You may have ideas and initial concepts or need help bringing everything together – we’ll help wherever you are.

Strategy

Understanding the product, audience, category, competitors and commercial objectives.

Brand

Creating or developing the identity and visual language behind the packaging.

Concepts

Exploring different creative approaches and establishing the strongest direction.

Technical

We’ve got the experience you need to ensure your packaging is both on-brand and compliant.

Rollout

Applying the system across additional products, SKUs, flavours, formats and ranges.

Ongoing support

Handling amendments, NPD and future packaging requirements as the brand grows.

Food packaging experience

We’ve been doing this for over two decades.

Toast Food is the specialist food and drink arm of Toast Design Consultancy.

Our packaging experience covers startups, challenger brands and established food businesses across a wide range of categories.

We’ve created packaging for everything from chocolate, tea and drinks to vegan products, sauces, snacks, bakery products and specialist foods.

And because our wider team also covers branding, print, websites, content and digital, we can take what we’ve created on the pack and make it work everywhere else your brand needs to appear.

See our packaging work