Graphic Design for Private Label Products
Artwork is where a private label range either looks like a brand or looks like a template. The difference is rarely talent. It is whether the designer knows what the packaging structure is, what the label is obliged to carry, and what the printer needs from the file.
We design alongside the packaging, so the artwork is built for the box that will actually be made rather than adapted to it afterwards.
What we design
- Brand basics: mark, colour, type and the rules that keep a range consistent
- Label and panel layout: front, back and side panels set out with the legal and content panels in place
- Packaging artwork: retail cartons, sleeves, inserts, blister cards and rigid boxes
- Listing graphics: main image framing, comparison tables and A+ module layouts, built around the product photography so the artwork and the images agree
- Print ready files: correct bleed, safe margin, colour mode and resolution for the process being used
- Range systems: a template that lets a new product join the range without a fresh design each time
What a designer needs before starting
- The structure the artwork sits on, and its dieline if it already exists
- The claims the label has to make, and which of them need a certificate behind them
- The destination market, because language, units and marking rules differ between them
- The channel, since a retail shelf and a marketplace thumbnail make different demands of the same file
What you get
- Print ready artwork with the dieline, bleed and margins the printer needs
- Editable source files as well as the exported versions
- A range template for the products that follow
- Files checked against the dieline before release, not after the print run
How this differs from product design
Product design covers the form of the product and the structure of the packaging. Graphic design covers what is printed on it. They are quoted separately because the work and the risks are different, and because a buyer who already has a structure often needs only the artwork. The wording that goes with the artwork is handled as content marketing, so the two are planned together rather than one after the other.
Frequently asked questions
Can you work inside our existing brand guidelines?
Yes, and a range extension is the usual case. Send the guidelines, the fonts and the source files, and we work within them.
What about font licensing?
We tell you which fonts a design uses and whether the licence covers commercial packaging. Where it does not, we propose a replacement rather than leaving you exposed to a claim.
Who owns the artwork?
You do, once the project is paid for. We keep a copy for the archive and hand over the source files on request.
Start a design brief
Send the product, the structure if you have one, and the market. We come back with what the artwork needs to carry.
