Packaging design brief template
Dielines, press dates and regulatory panels: the parts of a packaging brief the briefer never knew to write down.
Packaging is where the cost of a thin brief is highest, because the mistakes are physical. A missed bleed is a reprint. A dieline that arrives three weeks late is a launch that slips. A nutrition panel set below the legal minimum size is a product that cannot go on the shelf. Briefers know their product; they rarely know print, and this template exists to carry the part they do not know.
The dieline comes first
Nothing can be designed for a carton, a pouch, a mailer or a set until the flat shape exists. Either you have it, the supplier provides it, or someone has to create it, and "I don't know" is the most common honest answer. This template asks the question immediately after the container, because the answer decides whether artwork can start next week or next month, and it flags the two answers that mean it cannot start at all.
Quantity decides the method, and the method decides everything else
Under five hundred units it is digital print. Above two thousand it is offset. Flexible packaging at volume is flexo, and cartons at scale are litho-laminated. The briefer almost never knows this and the printer always assumes it, so the brief works it out from the quantity band and says so. It then follows the consequences through: whether Pantone spot colours are economic at that run length, whether foil and emboss tooling costs make sense for a short run, what the colour profile should be, and how many working days the press needs.
The date on the shelf is not the artwork deadline
Briefers give the date the product goes on sale. Designers need the date the artwork must be at the printer. Between them sit print lead time, shipping to the warehouse, and, for anything with a regulatory panel, a legal review. The gap is routinely six weeks. This template asks for the shelf date and then subtracts each stage, working in working days, and writes the real artwork deadline into the brief. That single line prevents more packaging delays than anything else in the document.
Regulatory content is content someone has to supply
Barcodes, ingredients, nutrition, allergens, recycling marks, net weight, country of origin, batch fields, warnings. Missing regulatory content is the second most common cause of reprints, after dielines, and it does not come from the designer. The brief asks what applies, reserves a legal panel at the mandatory type size, puts a legal review stage before press, and notes when nobody has been named to provide the text.
Vector logos, and where it will be seen
Two things nobody writes down. First, that the logo exists as vector artwork: a raster logo cannot be printed at packaging quality and this is discovered painfully late almost every time, so it is a blocker here. Second, where the pack will be seen. A supermarket shelf needs standout at two metres; an online listing needs to survive as a thumbnail; direct-to-consumer shipping needs durability and an unboxing moment. Each changes the design, and each is one tap.
The one thing that must not be got wrong
On packaging it is usually the thing that is legally or physically fixed. Put it at the top, in a box.
The questions, and what goes wrong without them
- ScopeWhat are you making?Packaging, editorial and signage share almost nothing. Naming which removes most of the tree.
- ScopeWhat kind of packaging?only when it appliesThe container decides whether a dieline is needed, whether the artwork wraps, and whether a structural supplier must be involved before design starts. A missing dieline is the most common packaging delay there is.
- ScopeFormat and extentonly when it appliesPage count decides the binding, and a count not divisible by four is a hard print constraint briefers routinely break.
- CraftHow many are being made?Quantity decides the print method, and the print method decides whether spot colours and finishes make economic sense. The briefer almost never knows this and the printer always assumes it.
- CraftFinishes and colourEach finish is a separate vector file and an extra proof. Foil and emboss carry tooling costs that make short runs disproportionately expensive.
- CraftRegulatory content, and who prints itonly when it appliesMissing regulatory content is the second most common cause of packaging reprints, after dielines. A named printer turns bleed, type sizes and colour profile from assumptions into facts.
- CraftWho is printing it?only when it appliesA named printer turns bleed, minimum type size and colour profile from assumptions into facts.
- LookPick what you likePeople are unreliable at describing taste and reliable at recognising it. Five picks say more than a paragraph of adjectives.
- LookYour picks pull two ways. Which is closer?only when it appliesWhen the references contradict each other, the designer has to pick a side. Better that you do.
- LookWhat already exists?Raster logos cannot be printed at packaging quality, and this is discovered painfully late almost every time.
- LookWho is this for, and where will they see it?Where it is seen changes the design more than who buys it. Online product photography is almost never mentioned and changes everything.
- PracticalitiesBudget rangeA band is a signal about which kind of job is on the table, not a commitment. Without one the designer guesses.
- PracticalitiesKey dateA date only means something next to the minimum production window. If they do not fit, better to know now.
- PracticalitiesWho signs it off?The number of approvers, with a named tiebreak, predicts revision rounds better than anything else in the brief.
- PracticalitiesThe one thing that must not be got wrongEvery project has one. It is rarely written down because it feels obvious to the person who knows it.