Packaging design brief template
The four things a packaging brief needs from you, and the print specification that follows from them. You do not need to know what flexo is.
For product and brand teams briefing a pack, a range or a refresh.
About 10 questions, mostly taps. Free, no account. About ninety seconds.
Start a graphic design or packaging briefThis is what a finished graphic design or packaging brief contains, with an example line in each section. Write it by hand from this, or answer the questions below by tapping and the page writes it for you.
The one thing that must not be got wrong
The constraint that overrides everything else.
“The carton must fit the existing shelf tray. 74 × 74 × 150 mm, no exceptions.”
What we are making
The piece, in physical terms: container, format, count.
“A folding carton for 250 g of whole beans, three variants.”
Dieline and quantity
Whether a dieline exists, and the run as a range. Print method follows.
“Dieline exists from the current printer. First run 5,000 per variant, then reorders of 2,000.”
Specifications
Written for you from the quantity and container: method, bleed, safety, resolution, finishes to confirm.
“Offset litho at this quantity. 3 mm bleed, 5 mm safety, 300 dpi. Matt lamination to confirm with the printer.”
What must be on it
Regulatory and mandatory content, so nothing is discovered at artwork.
“Ingredients, allergens, net weight, best-before space, barcode, recycling mark, origin.”
Audience and job
One person, one verb, one shelf.
“For someone standing in front of six coffees in a Meny. They should pick this one up.”
Tone and references
Positions on scales; packs to sit beside and to avoid.
“Warm rather than cool. Understated rather than bold. Like La Cabra’s bags. Not like the supermarket own-brand.”
What exists
Logo, guidelines, photography, the current artwork files.
“Logo and guidelines. Current artwork as PDFs only, no source files.”
Budget, dates, sign-off
A band, the date it must be on the shelf, and who says yes. The real artwork deadline is worked out from the shelf date.
“25–60k DKK for design. On shelf 3 March, so artwork to the printer by 20 January.”
Open questions
What is not decided, said plainly.
“Whether the third variant launches with the other two. Who supplies the barcode numbers.”
You answer the questions. The brief writes these.
- Print method from the quantity
- Whether a dieline is needed
- Bleed, safety and resolution
- Lead times and the real artwork deadline
- The regulatory content list
Packaging is where a thin brief costs the most, 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. You know your product. You are not expected to know print, and this template carries the part you do not know.
The document above is a finished packaging brief. You need to supply four things; the specification follows from them.
The decisions that move the quote
The container. A folding carton, a label on a jar, a pouch, a bottle, a can, a tube, a mailer box, or a set. This decides whether a dieline is needed, whether the artwork wraps around a curve, and whether a structural supplier is involved before design starts.
Whether a dieline exists. Nothing can be designed for a carton or a pouch until the flat shape exists. Either you have it, your supplier provides it, or someone creates it. "I do not know" is the most common honest answer, and it moves the first task from design to a phone call, which is the right first task.
The quantity, as a range. Under five hundred is digital print. Above two thousand is offset. Flexible packaging at volume is flexo; cartons at scale are litho-laminated. From the range your designer knows whether spot colours are economic, whether foil or embossing tooling makes sense, and how many working days the press needs. Give the first run and the reorders separately.
The date on the shelf. Not the artwork date. The date the pack is needed in the world. The brief works backwards through print, shipping and legal review, and writes the real artwork deadline. The gap is routinely six weeks.
The regulatory content. Barcodes, ingredients, nutrition, allergens, recycling marks, net weight, origin, batch fields, best-before space, warnings. Missing regulatory content is the second most common cause of a reprint, after dielines, and it does not come from the designer. Name who supplies the text and the barcode numbers.
Where it 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.
Whether the logo exists as vector artwork. A logo that lives only as a JPEG on the website cannot be printed at packaging quality, and this is found out late almost every time. Here it is checked first.
Mistakes we see most
“Packaging for the new coffee range, three flavours.”
“A folding carton for 250 g of whole beans, three variants on one dieline. The dieline exists; our printer has it. First run 5,000 per variant.”
Container, dieline and quantity in two lines. The print method is now known.
“Artwork needed by mid-February.”
“On the shelf 3 March, fixed by the retailer's range review. Work back from that date.”
Six weeks of print, delivery and legal review puts artwork with the printer around 20 January. Mid-February would have been late.
“Standard legal text as usual.”
“Must appear: ingredients, allergens, net weight, best-before space, EAN barcode, recycling mark, country of origin. Jonas supplies the barcode numbers by 10 December.”
A list and a name. The legal panel can be reserved and the review scheduled.
Answer the questions below by tapping, and the brief works out the print method, the bleed and resolution, the finishes to confirm, the legal panel and the real artwork deadline for you.
What it asks, and why.
- 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 applies
The 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.
- ScopeWhat size, and how many pages?only when it applies
Page count decides the binding, and a count not divisible by four cannot bind. It is the print rule people break most.
- ScopeWhat kind of signage, and where?only when it applies
A door sign and a vehicle wrap are different trades. The kind, the environment and the count decide material, survey and installation before anyone designs.
- ScopeHow much identity, and applied to what?only when it applies
A logo alone and a full identity with guidelines are a fourfold difference in scope, and the applications decide what gets designed on it.
- ScopeWhich templates?only when it applies
Each kind of template has its own sizes and format, all of them known. Naming the kinds is the whole specification.
- CraftHow many are being made?only when it applies
Quantity decides the print method, and the method decides whether spot colours and finishes make sense. You are not expected to know this; the printer will assume it.
- CraftWhich finishes and colours?only when it applies
Each finish is a separate vector file and an extra proof. Foil and emboss carry tooling costs that make short runs disproportionately expensive.
- CraftWhat must be on it, and who prints it?only when it applies
Missing 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.
- CraftHow are colours defined?only when it applies
Colour is decided once, for an identity, and everything printed on it inherits the decision.
- LookWhat already exists?
A logo that only exists as a JPEG cannot be printed at this quality, and this is found out late almost every time. A logo and guidelines that do exist make this a job of applying them.
- 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 range
A band is a signal about which kind of job is on the table, not a commitment. Without one the designer guesses.
- PracticalitiesKey date
A date only means something next to the minimum production window. If they do not fit, better to know now.
- PracticalitiesThe one thing that must not be got wrong
Every project has one. It is rarely written down because it feels obvious to the person who knows it.