Packaging Design for Creatives & Entrepreneurs

1. Class Introduction: Hi, I'm Snow Customer experience Lead for pack line dot com Welcome to our class action Designed for creatives and entrepreneurs. Custom printed packaging is one of the most effective ways to make your brand stand out. It attracts customers, promotes brand loyalty. It can even resonate with customers values and tell your brand story in this course will cover everything you need for your first packaging project. Correct acting is essential to protect products during transit and on store shelves, so we'll go over materials and structures. You'll be able to make an educated choice picking which structure is right for your product . Then together we'll be applying your design skills using packed planes. Box designer and adobe illustrator to set up artwork for the structure that you've chosen will also go over production methods and finishing options. This classes for students with a background in graphic design or for those who have taken skills, her classes in branding, marketing and graphic design. Custom packaging might sound difficult, but it pack lane. We're committed to making it accessible. We're excited to show you how easy and cost effective it is to go from proof to press 2. Common Box Styles and Design Consderations: thing. This segment will cover some technical concepts. I'll be showing you some common styles and materials used for custom packaging. The most basic consideration is product protection. Of course, the product will need to reach the customer undamaged. So three questions. How fragile is the product? What kind of opportunities will the product have to sustain damage? And how much other protection will the product have? In many cases, the primary packaging or retail packaging will be encased in a shipping box before transport caliber will be your primary consideration for how much protection material provides for corrugated packaging. We refer to the caliper as flute. The most common flu we use is the flu, which is frequently used for subscription boxes or gift boxes. We see many of our customers successfully shipping their products through USPS, FedEx and UPS using any flu mailer boxes. If you're shipping something that isn't particularly fragile or heavy, like apparel or snacks, this is appropriate if more protection is needed Being see. Flutes are a popular choice for shipping boxes and produce boxes. Four chipboard packaging. Some of the most common caliber weights are 18 to 24 point 18. Point is frequently used for cosmetic packaging, and the thicker 24 point stock is more common for heavier items like a candle. Let's start by looking at some different types of boxes. This carton style is called a sleeve. Sleeves are very popular for Candies and other small gift items. Sleeves are also available with rigid box walls. Like a box style hybrid. This is a standard rigid box. You might be familiar with these from such brands as Tiffany or men's and other high end brands. Rigid boxes are considered those sturdiest retail packaging style that is the strongest box you would see on a store shelf. These could be suitable for perfume bottles, liquor give sets, watches and other luxury items depending on size and shape of the product. Formed inserts made of foam core are typically used inside rigid boxes for enhanced presentation and stability. Mailer boxes are my favorite style. As I mentioned a moment ago, a lot of our customer ship these through the post with the flute holding upgrade. If you have a subscription service, this is your box style. You found it hugely popular with start ups and companies like Bark Box. Also, these are great on retail shelves. A lot of customers are using this packaging for electron ICS. Great is a gift box or as a sales kit. If you do any online shopping, you're already familiar with this box style. You may not know that it's also referred to as an R S C. Regular slaughtered carton. This is the most common type of shipping box. We sell these predominantly and B flute, the eighth inch thickness RSC's air also commonly produced in a flute, seafood and even double wall materials. Now that we've gone over some of the primary box styles that you could use for your product packaging here a few considerations that will help you determine which box style makes the most sense for your product. Large or heavy products will require corrugated board or 24 point shipboard. For tall products. You want to go with the shipping box or folding carton style four products that only require shallow death. The tab walking mailer or rigid box style might be more suitable. Choosing the right structure will maximize structural integrity. Different structures offer different presentation value. Rigid boxes air used for high end luxury products due to their aesthetic and premium materials. Other products meant call for the utility of a shipping box. But if you like the presentation value folding carton, you can use a custom shipping box with a top. Top cost is a practical concern for many business owners. Certain box styles will be less expensive due to the way they're manufactured. For example, or reverse tuck carton will be optimal for nesting on a printer sheet. But this is a trade off if the weight of your product calls for a more supportive structural design, like a tuck top auto bottom. The most expensive styles are rigid boxes used for luxury items as we covered earlier. If you're interested in an alternative, we recommend either a premium coated white mailer box, a paperboard simplex tray and lead, or a tray and sleeve combination. 3. Production Techniques: designer. You won't be physically present for any of the stages that happen after you submit your design for press. Whoever understanding these next ages could be really helpful when you are preparing your design or making decisions about the project. After you prove your job for printing, the first stage that it's going to go through once it enters your printer's hands will be the pre press department. And depending on the printer that you're working with, this entails different things. For example, they might be a gang run printer, which means that on top of checking your artwork for obvious airs, they'll also be laying it out on a flat to be printed with other customers. Drops. If you've decided to print a high quantity than after pre press, the tools will be prepared to print your job. One method of high quantity printing is called Flex a graphic, the closest thing you've probably ever seen to a flex. A graphic plate would be a rubber stamp available at a stationery store or ah, craft store. The principle is much the same, except that it is a flexible or very large plate. Um, which wraps around a drum and can print many pages in rapid succession. If your design is relatively simple, then there is a very good chance that your work will be printed. Flex a. Graphically if your artwork is more detailed or you have photographs included than offset. Lithography may be used, often called offset. The Though this process relies on the basic principle that oil is hydrophobic, your image is burned into a plate, forming shallow grooves. In this plate, the ink, which is oily, goes into the grooves and the rest of the plate is kept wet. Thank has been transferred to a rubber surface called a blanket. When this blanket is pressed against the substrate, cork it or paper and then leaves the print. If you only need to print a low quantity than it's extremely likely that you'll go ahead with digital printing as there is no tooling, no plates used. This is very cost effective if you only need a low number. Many of us do some form of digital printing at home, but you might not know how it works, so there are teeny little offices about 10 microns across, which is 0.4 inches in diameter, and these squeeze the ink onto the paper, which is about one millimeter below. Tooling falls under two categories. Cutting dies and printing plates will talk A lot more about cutting dies when we get to our project, but asked to printing plates. If you're having a high quantity printed, then it's very likely that you're going to need tohave printing plates made. You'll be charged for this set up at the beginning of your job. But if you ever need a reorder, you won't be charged for these printing plates again, as long as you don't change your artwork. For high volume production, a box such as a carton or a mailer box would be cut using a cutting die, which is a precise tool but looks a bit like a large cookie cutter. Each diet is an arrangement of steel blades that stamp out a particular box shape. These dyes commonly have wooden bases, but it higher volumes could be mounted on a cylinder, which is called a rotary or roller die. But for low quantities, these same box styles can be cut on a cutting table using a robotic Exacto knife. Essentially, if you've ever tried Teoh order a custom box size. You may notice that many companies trying to walk you into stock sizes because they have set cutting dies and they don't want to cut your box digitally. 4. A Brief Introduction to Finishing Techniques: thing in this section will be talking about finishing techniques and why they're so important. Before we get into any specifics. Here is some basic information to get us started finishing Techniques are used to create visual effects with different final appearances, including Matt Dole. Glossy and satin varnishes conceal in the ink, preventing it from rubbing off on other units during shipping or distribution. Varnishes also act as protectant, keeping the package looking lovely on a store shelf or anywhere else where it could be handled or scuffed. Varnishes are petroleum based and are applied as a standard color station on the press. Now that you're familiar with the important role that varnishes play, let's talk about the two main types of coatings and they're different benefits gloss. UV is one of the most popular coatings used in the industry. One major benefit of this coating is that not only does it look great, it also serves as a strong protectant layer against scratching and rubbing. UV coating is applied as a liquid and cures almost instantly with specialized UV drying lamps and effective in straightforward process that often yields amazing results. Less expensive in less silky than UV coating OC wastes or a Q coatings typically provide a mat or semi matte finish, although they can achieve different looks such as gloss satin and soft touch A. Que coatings offer a small degree of protection against rubbing and are usually applied to assist in the drawing process. Now that you know more about different types of coatings, it's time to start exploring finishing styles historically used to make a statement. And Boston continues to declare elegance and luxury by raising or depressing aspects of your package surface. You can achieve a unique textured finish, attracting customers with a tactile, almost sculptural experience. Ah, foil stamping press uses a heated plate, which is engraved with the design element. The plate strikes a roll of foil, molding the foil to the plate. The metal plate then strikes the substrate, transferring the foil element to the packaging. The result is a highly reflective image, with a classy, shimmering metallic appearance. Foil stamping is also called hot stamping, so we've covered the importance of coatings and varnishes. We've talked about coding types and walk through the to keep finishing styles. Now that you have a better understanding of finishing techniques, you're better equipped to make vital packaging decisions for your business. Good luck, and if you need any more information, please reach out to us at pac lane dot com. 5. RGB vs. CMYK: wait. So no, go over some of the differences between the colors you see on your screen and process colors. Process colors of physical pigment. C M y que refers to the specific in colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black. These inks combined to make a gamut of colors we can see on a printed package. When you look at your screen, you're looking at RGB colors, a combination of red, green and blue lights. It's very important to note that your screen, because it relies on light, will always be showing you RGB colors regardless of your settings. This can be very confusing. If you're attempting to replicate the appearance of light on your screen as a printed product, there's no way to directly translate RGB colors to Sam y Que or vice versa. Unfortunately, this is the nature of light vs pigment. I've saved this document an RGB color mode to further explain this concept. Saving in this way would be great if you're using the graphic for a website. But since we're doing packaging, we wanna go ahead and be in C n y que color mode for the screen to provide the most accurate representation of colors possible when I switched the mode here, Illustrator dulls the colors to give us this more accurate representation. This is a special function of illustrator to offset the color differences between the two color modes. Still, emphasis on more accurate. At this point, we have the colors, noted an illustrator as C M Y que values. So keep in mind here that the hex code conversion to see him like a isn't one toe one. Either hex code corresponds better to the RGB color space. This is the time to adjust colors if you're wanting the final product to be brighter, but you will find the illustrator attempts to constrain the colors within the gamut of possible colors that seem like a printing can actually produce. If we go back to RGB, we can see the difference again now placing the file on our document. When we bring it in, we're again seeing illustrator automatically converted into CM like a color mode. I strongly advise working in the CME like a mode in illustrator whenever you're preparing a flyover print, as it will allow you to closer approximate the color looking for and also better prepare yourself for the appearance of the final product. Sometimes the material or production method will also impact by colors or printed. Here we have some examples of designs digitally printed on craft material versus the same printing on white material. And here is a comparison between the flex. A graphic print versus the same design digitally printed the differences in color, or do two different types. You'll find a lot of digital printers will not support spot colors and instead work exclusively with Sam. Like a. However, digital printers are often able to approximate thes colors to a degree that can even surpass offset. Printing results are heavily dependent on the equipment, and the software that your printer is working with it may help to request some samples that you can inspect up close. 6. Swatch Books in Illustrator: Okay, so we're going over. Thesis watch book feature in Illustrator that lets you work with process colors finding the closest cm like a color versus Pantone matching system color and vice versa. Let's begin to bring up this watches panel that you see right here. Select window from the menu at the top of illustrator. From there, you can navigate down until you find swatches. Since my swatches panel was already open, functions served to hide it just now. So let's repeat it and bring that right back. Okay? There are already a few swatches here. I can select all of my design. No. All quick add selected colors. Now I have the rest of this watch is created. See how I can reference them and easily change the colors if needed. This is bundled with Swatch books and illustrator. So if you're working in Pantone, you can go to this option like so and select opens, watch library and then color books. This brings upsets of Pantone colors for you For your use. Um, it'll allow me to see the new miracle names which could be really useful if I came into illustrator with a specific Pantone color in mind like 3 to 55 I can start typing it here and bring up the color automatically, um, highlighting it if I double quick it. It changes the previously selected color and adds the new color to my Swatch panel. Super convenient. And I have this life preview to show you the new color. When I double click here, we can see that the color mode is set to book color. If you were if you were to send it like this to a printer, they would need Teoh have the spot color to find that steps of the essential um, you can also switch it to see him like a here if needed. So that's it for this watches feature. It's a great way to browse colors and envision possibilities. 7. Introduction to Dielines: DI Line is a two dimensional representation of the three dimensional packaging structure. If you can imagine your box structure and assembled, that will be the basic silhouette of the dye line. DI Line service a guide for both the designer and the printer to determine the correct layout in position of each artwork element for custom box production, the manufacturer will be printing flat onto a sheet. The larger sheet contains many nesting dia lines, each with the complete design. Eventually, the sheets or cut down after each sheet has been run through the presses and finishing equipment. The dialing also serves as the guideline that instructs the equipment operators, where to precisely cut crease and blue box structure. Let's type into an example of a simple mailer box, a very popular box structure for e commerce businesses or promotional packages. Here we can see the black outline is the cut line. The red lines represent the creases where the box will be folded. Each box that goes into production will ultimately be prepared, using some kind of dialing template learning to work with these will expand the range of design possibilities for your project and give you a deeper understanding of what your order goes through in pre press 8. Project Overview: We've covered a lot of ground to prepare for this project. Our previous segments went over box styles, materials, CalPERS production methods, color modes and dial in anatomy. Please join us now to create a unique custom printed package. First, we'll use Adobe Illustrator toe layout artwork on a dye line. If you don't have a dial in from your printer already, request one from them or visit the request page for Pack Lane. You can find the link in the resource is section of the class Project Tap. It's spackling dot com slash die line hyphen request. During our project will build a professional design that aligns perfectly with the panels of a three D package will extend a bevel bleed so that patterns and colors go all the way to the edge of the printed package. Then we'll vector rise, are live text and make sure everything in the file is print ready. Lastly, to visualize the final product and confirm we're happy with the design, we'll utilize three different three D rendering tools. Esko Live surface and pack lane dot com. If you already have assets such as a logo and branding colors, then you're ready to start following along with us. If not, we've posted some links to great sources for graphics and inspiration. In the resource is section of the class Project tub. If you run into any questions, email us contact at pac lane dot com. And, of course, when you've completed your design and three D renderings, upload them to the Project gallery to share with your classmates. 9. Illustrator Design Tutorial: so I have my dive line template file open. I'm going to place an image file on it by opening the Project folder and selecting the image that I want to use here. Next to my template is my image file. When I selected Illustrator places it for me near the center, all manipulated a bit. Now I have put it on a new artwork layer and locked my die line layer. If I go on to my links panel, I see that has my image links. If they send it to a printer, will need to include the linked file as well in the folder that I provide to them. If I don't want to send image file separately, I can embed it. This makes it so that when I send the file, they will be able to access any of the image files used. If you don't embed, there's a risk that when the file is opened up on their end, a missing assets notification will appear, which is, of course of hold up. Now I'm hitting safe to complete the embedding process. My dialing file will be larger, um, as the assets contained within. So I have my project open. I have a bleed there and have an artwork layer. You can see I have some areas where the artwork exceeds the dye line. And that's because I want the artwork to go all the way to the edge when it's printed. This, um, this excess pattern outside the bleed area, I probably want to get rid of that. So I'm going to show you how to punch out the bleed area from the pattern design. First, I'm going to select the pattern that is bleeding out too far. Now I'm hitting shift so that I can also select the bleed edge. Now I'm clicking, object in the top menu and selecting clipping mask, make that function, punched out those areas, but also brought everything to the top layer. I don't want that on top, so I'm actually pulling it down so that it will go behind the other artwork and look the way intend. There are still some areas here where the pattern has been retained, but I actually just wanted blank, so I'm going to clean those up a little by using direct selection to select these points. This isn't quite how I like so I'm adding an additional anchor point. I'm selecting the pen tool, waiting until they see the plus symbol and adding the new anchor point. Now I can drag again with a bit more control. Uh, yeah. Now this is looking. This is looking Good way Just spent some time cleaning up the bleed areas and making sure that the artwork from each panel stops at the line where the fold will go. I've also tapered some of the edges so that the bleed from the pattern panel doesn't go into the blank background panel. This is called a beveled bleed, and it helps ensure that the printed product looks great after any cutting variance. Now that the clipping mask is cleaned up, I'm going to center my main graphics on the panels as their little off center. This trick is a life changer. I grabbed the rectangle tool and draw a rectangle, but aligns with the panel that I want to send her the graphic on. Now I'm selecting the graphic hitting shift and selecting the rectangle I just created. Now I go up to a line and click aligned to keep object now horizontal align center, followed by vertical Align Center. Now that we're done centering on this panel, all move the rectangle I just created to the next panel that I want to work on majeste in the rectangle. Little as this panel is slightly different. Size Okay, now select in the art shift, selecting the rectangle, the line a line to key object horizontally and vertically. Now both are front and back panels have properly centred graphics. Now we're going to outline the text. This is also called back to Rising. You'll notice that I have two pieces of text that sex is not a native text and illustrator . It's already outlined, so I can't edit it as text anymore. There's no way to reopen the existing text box over out of letter. Who are anything any kind of action like that when you see that it has a lot of different anchor points, that's a giveaway, that it's been backed arised. If it's underlined, that means it's not been backed arised yet. When you go to send your file to the printer, if there's text that isn't outlined, then there's a good chance that the printer won't have her font and they won't be able to print your text. The best case scenario then, um would be that they would notify you in on the job would only be delayed. The worst case scenario is that the text would just drop out. Um, and your package might not be usable when you vector rise. It insures that regardless of the computer that the file is opened on the appearance of the phone will be universal show. For each part. I'm selecting type, then create outlines. Now I'm finishing up giving everything a final review. I noticed that my clipping mask, He's a little off. I'm using direct selection to nudge this a little. Okay, and now we are good to go. 10. Studio Essentials for Illustrator: One limitation of Adobe Illustrator is that there isn't any built in functionality to preview your designs in three D or C. How packaging will look once assembled. Luckily, there are a couple of plug ins that do just that. The 1st 1 that will look at is by a company called Esco. The plug in is called studio Essentials for Adobe Illustrator. There is a free 30 day trial on their website, and we're providing a link to it so they can try this out on your projects. It's very easy to use tool, but you need to have your dialing. Embedded is a layer for this to work so you can get that structural file from your printing company or a structural designer to use the plug in select Window Been Asko and studio designer. This brings up a three D rendering of your box design. By clicking and holding with my mouse or track pad, I can rotate this in three dimensional space. There are also some nice rendering options, and you can do now. We have the ability here to fold the file from two D to three D. A really fun and helpful animation. If you worked as a graphic designer. This is something that your clients will love to see. You can export this or take a screenshot screen, capture and then pass it on to them. We also have the change substrate option, which allows you to preview what your printed box would look like, depending on the material that you have it printed on. Kraft own boxes, of course, really classy and hip. Sometimes it can be difficult to visualize your design on a non white surface. This changes the colors in your design, and the blank area is an attempt to replicate the appearance of the final printed product you need to hit, refresh and then make sure that you're in visualize er quality, so as you can see this book in Super Nifty 11. LiveSurface Context: live surfaces. Both the Mac application and an illustrator plug in the two parts work in conjunction, allowing you to visualize your design on different surfaces and packages. In the class resource is tab. You'll find a link to the live surface website. Just like with Esco, you can download a free trial here. I'll open the Mac application that I previously installed. You can see there's a big library of stock packaging styles. You'll notice that they also have other surfaces, such as billboards and apparel, all kinds of canvases where you might want to preview your artwork and logos. Live surfaces always adding to their library of stock surfaces as well. You'll notice that some of these options are watermarked. Since we're in the free trial, I'll start with the box. I'm selecting dental mode High Rez. Now it's transferred into my downloads folder, and we can see the download progress right here. Now that it's done downloading all drag it into one of my project folders. From here, there's an edit icon that I'll double click. It brings up in Illustrator file and a window that has my box preview. I'll bring in my logo, grouped the elements and center it also all enlarge it a bit. You'll notice that this isn't a Dia line. You wouldn't give this to a printer or manufacturer. It's simply a template that works exclusively with live surface to create a mock up. And that's the purpose of life surface to create mock ups. Here I have the live surface panel open, all select apply artwork, and now we can see the updated rendering all select the rectangle tool, and we'll see what this design would look like with full bleed. So going into the live surface preview box, I have some icons. I'll click. Adjust these air settings for greater control over the appearance of this rendering. I have two options here for manipulating the printing appearance. Let's say I want to make this scold foil more shiny and metallic looking. I can increase the strength highly and make a bit more speculator. Yes, now it looks more metallic. I can also change the ink lighting. I can control the amount of shadow, making this a lighter gold and increase the opacity that makes a cool effect. But let's put it back a little. Let me increase the strength a bit more, and now it's very clear that this is in Boston now, in the upper left hand corner of the window, I'll change the background color, maybe something off weight or blue to go with this yellow box. We can also adjust the global lighting. If you don't like something, you can click reset defaults in the upper right so you can see life surfaces really fun and inspiring. After you play around with it, upload your rendering to the Project Gallery on skill share. We're looking forward to seeing the concepts you've come up with. 12. Packlane Website Demo: So now we'll take a look at the Pac Lane website. I'll be showing you how to easily set up your design on Pack Ling and preview the design in three D on the same page. A pack line is a printing service that offers a few blocks styles. Customers use the box designer tool on pack lane dot com to enter custom specifications, create their design and preview in three D. It's free to use the tool, and you have the option to check out. Once your design is complete here alone page, you can see three box style options to give a comparison to the earlier demo that we did all. Go ahead and choose the classic curtain. This product is a standard 18 point SBS holding card with the reverse tuck end. One cool thing about the design tool is that it's integrated with the price list so you can see the price as you're designing. For some of the products on the site, the price will change based on specifications ending coverage. The two allows me to rotate the box at any point during the design process to continuously preview. Here we have the stock size options, but we can also specify a custom size to the 16th of an inch. But this time I like the stock size. No, I'll click. Add edit graphics and click upload artwork in the upper left hand corner. I'm going to start with uploading a logo to go on the right side of the carton. I chose my AI logoed upload, but Pack Lane also accepts PDF JPEG and PNG files, though keep in mind PNG files are in the RGB color mood, so you should only be using those. If you're not particular about color in the upper right hand corner, we have some different functions that allow you to center and scale the graphic down here. We have the option to request a free to di di line template. If a customer is comfortable with AI and prefers to have a greater degree of control, they would typically want to use that option. However, a lot of customers prefer the design tool, since it simpler. Ultimately, it's up to preference. Once you click, save the window closes and you can preview the logo on how it will appear on a printed box . Now I'll repeat the process for the left side. On this opposite side, I'm selecting the same logo. I'm happy with the default positioning if I want to. I can click, change color drag to select a color, as you can see along the bottom. You also have control to input a color value. Instead, I can flood the box by selecting color entire box. His color goes behind your graphics. Of course. Personally, I prefer just white. This time I can remove the color with just a couple of clicks. I have my side design started. Always been around to the back and add some more artwork. I'm selecting a pattern and selecting fit to cover the entire panel previewing okay of the sister and you come together on the other side. I'll put the pink pound. So far, so good. I have a badge here that I need. I want to add this to the design as a layer, and this tool has the capacity to add New elements is layers, so that's no problem on the opposite side. All upload another batch. As you can see, this Holy Out process only took me a few minutes. It's fun to spend the design you've created and imagine it as a printed package sitting on a retail shelf for someone receiving it as a gift. Once you've created a design, you might want to get some input from co workers, friends or family before you check out. Of course, you could place a test order and do a beta test instead of ordering a larger quantity. But if you're in the very early planning stages, you might want to share your three D preview before to get some preliminary feedback. This design tool has a feature for that. In the upper right hand corner, click share my design. Then in the upper left, you'll have a share a blink. Anyone that you give the link to will be able to roti and preview the design. They could even order the box, but clicks by clicking customize this box the link in the upper right. That's pretty useful if you've designed a box for someone else in the upper left. We also have the ability to download a snapshot. This can be used on Facebook or anywhere that you like. You can quick save design, and that will allow you to create a Pac Man dot com account and access your design later on . Please post your terrible link to the skill share page so that other students on school share can take a look at what you've come up with. 13. Closing Thoughts: We hope you've enjoyed this brief introduction to custom packaging Way provided some additional guides, and resource is you can find them in the class projects tab. Be sure to check out back lane dot com to use our box designer order. Place a custom order. You can email me with any questions. We're looking forward to seeing a new designs.