Package Design: Dazzling Consumers with Color and Special Finishes

Consumers will often engage with a new product based on looks alone. An unusual shape, appealing graphics, vibrant colors and special printing effects are all tools that brands can leverage to design a compelling package. Whether aiming to communicate a brand’s identity or introducing a limited-edition product, there are endless opportunities to combine these techniques to capture consumer attention.

Different color trends may prevail depending on the market being catered to. For example, Crown has helped many wine and spirits brands utilize decorative tins. The preference in this space has been for darker hues – shades of blacks and dark greys – to lend a sense of elegance and premium quality to the product and its packaging. In contrast, bold, bright and shapely metal tins are popular in the confectionery market, while for cosmetics, subtle, metallic shades are used to convey feelings of elegance and opulence.

No matter which market they play in, brands face an interesting challenge as they seek to balance color trends with standing out from the competition. One way to inject differentiation into packaging is to go beyond color and employ special finishes that can help advance hues to a new level.

The ‘Finishing’ Touch
The secret to achieving the desired effect with color and special effects is layering. The combination of different coatings, inks and varnishes yields vastly different results. For example, using a transparent base coating will lend a metallic effect to colored inks while using a white base coating makes inks more intense or saturated. Incorporating additional features like embossing, debossing or shaping can make fine design details pop.

Crown works closely with its customers to design packaging that adapts to color trends and will resonate with their target consumer group. While gloss varnishes remain the most popular choice for packaging across segments, and with women in particular, male consumers favor matte finishes. Younger consumers are drawn to sparkling, holographic or pearlescent finishes that complement bright colors. Crown’s in-house team of designers and printing experts leverage tools like 3D design views, ink tests and color matching to deliver the highest quality results and help ensure that consumers are dazzled by the packaging and the product within it.