How to design the perfect adhesive label. 10 steps to follow.

In a really competitive market, differentiating a product from the competitors has become a must have for every company. A well-designed adhesive label can help achieving this goal drawing the attention of your potential customer towards your product.
 
While planning your marketing strategy your product label should be on your priority list, and the design should be done by a professional graphic designer. Making your product stand out on the shelf is not and easy process. You should create a distinctive brand identity that will influence the consumer’s buying decision when shopping. The label will draw the attention of potential customers instantly to your product if the design is attractive and unique. Even undecided customers can also think of buying your product based on its memorable label. But how can you create the perfect adhesive label? Here some tips to follow.
 
 

1. Make a good research

Before you start designing it is essential that you do a proper research. You should start from your target customers, analysing their age, gender, values, education. These are all vital information that will help your design decisions. When you know exactly which is your customer you can start researching about competing products or brands as much as possible. This information will help you to avoid designing a label that’s too close to a competing product and it will let you know what design to create to capture your customer attention. Moreover you should surely know where this product will be sold, even the country. For example, if you're designing a label for a jam brand that will be sold in supermarkets, then you will need to differentiate it from all the goods that will be placed next to it. If this product will be sold online you should have a totally different approach.
 
etichette per vino rosso

 

2. Find out the peculiarities of the company and product

To come up with a good label design, you will need some information also from your customer as well. If you analyse the customer history you will surely find out some distinctive elements that you can use on your design. This approach will give to your adhesive label design a personal touch. Is there a pre-existing logo design for the product? This is critical to find out. Often there will be a logo that you can use, but this is not always the case. Is this product a standalone or it will be part of a product line? This is another information that may change the entire design process.

 

3. Define the dimensions of your label design

Choosing the right dimensions of your adhesive label is fundamental. You should start from the physical dimensions of the bottle or jar. If you don't have it don't panic. You can ask your customer to send you the technical sheet. What we suggest to you is to try to fit your label on the bottle or jar. You can simply cut a piece of paper with its dimensions and stick on the bottle. It will help you a lot!
 
 

4. Define the informations and the hierarchy

To design a product label do not simply means creating an eye-catching graphic design but it also involves providing information to the final consumer. Certain elements such as the name of the product, the slogan and the company logo must have greater emphasis on your adhesive labels. For what concerns the other information you can decide how and where it will be displayed, taking into considerations that for some product labels there are rules to follow to comply with the law.
 
handwriting

 

5. Choose the right font

Usually, a product label contains a lot of text and therefore choosing the right typography to reflect the product is the key. A nice way to position all the informations is by typographic pairing. The costumer can easily recognize the pieces of information with the help of the contrast. The main objective of typographic pairing is to display the relationship between the informations and different type choices. Moreover you should use fonts that reflect the nature of the product. Make sure that the typeface doesn’t become too complex and lose out on the readability.
Depending on your skills as a designer, you might choose to create custom hand lettering for the label, rather than relying on a pre-existing font. The advantage of this is that you can create something unique to the product.
 

6. Consider the visual elements

The visual elements of the label design are just as important as its font.Some adhesive labels require illustration and graphic design elements. Pictures and illustrations are particularly useful for creating a feeling around the product that is difficult to obtain with words alone. Of course the style of the label design will depend a lot on the product you are designing for. If you are designing a label for a new white wine from a local producer for example, then you might include imagery of vineyard or something that will express its flavour.
 

7. Choose the right color scheme

Choosing the right colours is one of the most important aspects of designing a great product label. The  colours you use will depend on many factors, including the type of product you are designing the label for, the target and the colours used by competing brands. Moreover each color has its own psychological effect on the consumer.
 
Lombok font

 

8. Make your label design unique

Make sure that your adhesive label design looks unique, memorable and original. Research your competitors’ label. Get a design that stands out. Try to keep your design clean and avoid inserting too much elements in an attempt to make it better looking: most of the time when there are multiple labels required, the front face has just the logo and the brand name. The rest of the information is dumped at the back, for exemple the barcode or the weight. However, many designers believe that one single “wrap-around” label is more cost-effective. This type of label can be the perfect match for some kind of products, for exemple a beer or a jam.
 

9. Define the right material and finishing

The choice of materials and finishings is another important step in the label design process. This element will be part of the overall aesthetic of the product and they will enhance your graphic design idea: pay particular attention when choosing the texture and the grammage of your paper ( find out more). Add value to your adhesive labels with finishings: you can obtain particular effects with foiling, lamination or serigraphy!
 
 
Lombok font

 

10. Choose the right printing partner

Last but not the least, a good print of the label is part of the creative process. Having a great label design idea is not enough. The final result should always reflect your concept. Finding a professional partner to print your label design is the key. 
 
 
An excellent label design can make all the difference to the success of a  product: it is the business card of your product and one of the most powerful way to attract customers.  If you need help when creating your design, write us.We have a designer team at your disposal!
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