Inside Scoop of Packaging Designer vs Agency: Which Suits You Better?

Last Updated on November 25, 2022 by DesignerPeople

Ever wondered about the most common reason why 90% of startups fail to generate profits and tend to shut down within the initial 10 years?

Apart from the product quality, the packaging design also plays a significance in your overall sales rates. The attractive presentation of your product to the consumers has a lot to do with your startup success rates.

Sales growth is the most important reason, so many businesses out there make hefty investments in building the most unique and attractive packaging design that attracts their target consumers.

As consumers rely primarily on the packaging information and appeal to determine the final purchase, investing in a good packaging design professional is necessary for any startup or established business to succeed.

So how do you ensure that your packaging design will help your product stand out from the crowd?

By either hiring a Packaging Designer or an Agency!

Since it’s vital to ensure that your packaging represents the most authentic essence of your brand and the product, we are here to help break the ice on one of the most common confusions for business owners – Do they choose a packaging designer or agency!

Also Read: Hiring a Freelancer Packaging Designer Means Poison for Brand

What Do Product Packaging Designers Do?

Before we go deeper, we must understand what product packaging designers do? So product packaging refers to the final creative display of the product and its features in an appealing manner using enticing graphics, colours, fonts and other elements.

Product packaging designers usually start with collecting all the information about the brand, including the colours, fonts, logo, content, images, barcode, expiration date, budget, nutritional information and other elements included in the packaging design.

Next comes the importance of the packaging material and an inner layer of packaging if required to preserve the freshness of the product.

Once the material selection is taken care of, a product packaging designer will typically start working with the design elements of the exterior packaging. They will also add attractive elements and explore unique printing techniques to help your product stand out from your competitors while keeping your brand’s quality and budget intact.

How to find the perfect package designer for your brand?

The first step to finding the perfect package designer for your brand is to design a solid brief and share it with the designer. Your design brief consists of all your design needs, questions you have for the designer and other specifications you want to include in your packaging design. Here are some points you must add to your brief to help the designer match your requirements accurately:

• Give the designer a brief summary of your product or brand in general and what your brand stands for. This will help to translate the values into the design.
• Does your product target a specific audience or demographic? Be as specific as possible, as your designer will know who they are trying to reach.
• What are your goals and inspirations for your packaging design? Establish a direction for your designer that they can modify with their expertise. If you have certain concepts, you want to include in your design, share with them and watch your inspiration turn into a reality in your packaging design.
• Let them know about your competitors, as this can help them understand more about your industry and refer to it accordingly.
• Ensure to specify your deadline and be flexible with it. You don’t want to get your work delivered the night before the product launch. Hence, be early and give adequate time to your designer to brainstorm the best designs for your products.

Q1: Do You have experience in our sector or type of product?

Every product and industry category has a separate set of requirements and conditions that eventually affect the packaging design structure and how you market the product to the crowd.

Hence, you need to ensure that the person you hire has adequate expertise in your industry and category products.

For example, suppose you have a beauty and wellness brand. In that case, there are certain regulations and conditions that you can include in your packaging that can draw traction towards your business, such as cruelty-free, no addition of parabens and more.

This will help you gain the consumers’ attention and make your product stand out from your competitors while adhering to industry regulations like FSSAI guidelines for food packaging design.

Q2: Do You have any possible references you could give me?

The ideal way to get an in-depth understanding of the quality and reliability of the work of your package designer is to consider referrals from their other clients.

References can provide you with quality assurance of the final product you can expect as it eventually impacts your brand image, and only the best quality packaging gains a customer’s trust and loyalty.

Hence, check with other references and even better if you could interact with them to understand their experience with the designer and make the final decision.

Q3: Which printing and packaging technologies do you employ?

Suppose your designer created a packaging design in outdated software for your brand and did not significantly understand the latest print processes and technology. You will lose out on many potential opportunities and make your competitor stand out.

The person you hire must have all the knowledge of the latest print and packaging technologies while leveraging it for your business strategically with unique effects and finishes. Not only will this improve the quality of the packaging designs, but it will also minimise the overall steps in the process, making it way more simplified and efficient.

Q4: How much it cost to design packaging?

When hiring a freelance packaging designer or agency, you need not pay for their extra benefits, such as healthcare, PTO, paid leaves and others, like any other salaried individual. Instead, they are usually paid by the hour or task. Hence, even if they aren’t actively working on your project, you no longer have to keep paying them. This can save you a lot of money, which can later be reinvested in further scaling your business.

Q5: Do you understand specialised design?

When chosen correctly, packaging designers have specialised skills that can be advantageous in creating the perfect packaging design according to your product category and industry.

Hence, you no longer have to worry whether the design meets the regulatory requirements or is relatable to your industry as they may already have worked with similar brands in your industry, building this expertise.

Q6: Check the designer’s Motivation level?

Packaging designers are usually a one-person army! Unlike an agency, they typically take care of their HR, finances, project management, and all other elements of their packaging design business. Hence, you can be assured that they will be an incredibly agile asset for your packaging design requirements.

Q7: Do you offer personalised attention?

Since packaging designers usually work alone, they can offer you personalised attention, which can yield higher relevance and quality of work for your packaging designs. Also, you get to interact with them directly, as they are usually responsible for client communication.

This means you can approach them with any possible requirement without any restrictions, resulting in an improved, attractive design for your product packaging.

Pros: Hiring Packaging Design Agency

Even though the pros of hiring an expert packaging designer are immense, the merits of working with a well-reputed packaging design agency can never be overlooked. Here are some pros of hiring a design agency that can help build attractive packaging designs.

Agency works in a team

The biggest advantage of hiring agencies for your packaging design requirements is having a team of expert designers ready for your disposal. Often packaging designers may already have too many projects in hand, which is why they may turn down specific projects which is not the case when working with an agency.

Thus, you can be assured that there will always be someone there for you in an agency that can help you with your packaging design requirements.

Furthermore, hiring multiple designers may not bring you the consistency you need across all your product packaging designs. On the other hand, choosing an agency will ensure that your brand is taken care of by a single team, resulting in a more polished and consistent look.

Performance

The best packaging agencies have years of experience in various industries. This gives you a better scope into tapping into other industries with your packaging requirements if you ever plan to scale your business further.

Obviously, you must always check with their existing portfolio and the previous brand they have worked with to understand whether their expertise suits your packaging design requirements or not.

Quick Response time

Since agencies work with many teams, you can always expect a faster turnaround time for your designs. Starting from the shipping schedules to minimum order quantities and other elements. Agencies usually have all of it sorted!

Hence, when working with an agency, you can be assured that your delivery will meet the deadlines in perfect condition, m resulting in quicker launches and higher revenue generation for your brand!

Team of skilled & experienced designers

As we said, agencies come with a pack of skilled and experienced designers that may have worked numerous years in different industries. These experts already have an established reputation in the industry in which they have worked for multiple years.

Hence, irrespective of the personalisations and customisations you require, you can always find someone in an agency that can fulfil all your requirements and produce an excellent design for your next product launch!

Understand Branding & Its importance

Since agencies typically work across different industries, they have simultaneously helped their brand and other brands grow over time. This means they know just the right thing that will bring a greater chance of recognition for your brand among your customers.

When the experts do their job professionally with your packaging designs, you can save a significant amount of time, effort and revenue in convincing consumers to shop from your business.

Personal Account Managers

In most packaging design agencies, you will be assigned a personal account manager who notes down all your requirements and specifications and gets the work done by the designer. They will also take care of all the payments and the other procedures of your contract.

Your personal account manager can always connect you with the designer in case of any modifications or queries related to your design, which may not be available with solo packaging designers as chances are, they are likely to be busy with the designs all day long and can get unresponsive at times.

Hence, you always have someone ready at your disposal to discuss your packaging design requirements.

Conclusion

Choosing the best packaging designer or an agency is never a cakewalk. You need to conduct a rigorous analysis of their whereabouts before hiring any of them. However, you can be assured that all this hard work is worth it by the end as your stakes go higher after the launch of your amazing product with an eye-catching packaging design representing your brand.

When looking for the right agency or packaging designer, ensure that they align with your specifications and requirements accurately, as you don’t want to waste time on designers specialised in other industries and not yours.

However, suppose you want to make the process simpler. In that case, it is always better to hire an agency as you can access different types of designers specialised in various industries like DesignerPeople.

Hiring a quality freelancer or a design agency costs you the same.

We have worked with brands of numerous industries across different countries and delivered some of the most groundbreaking packaging designs that were sold within the first few hours of the launch!

It’s finally time to take your packaging design to the next level and surpass your competitors with the upcoming launch. So get in contact with our expert packaging designers and relax while we bring you the most breathtaking packaging designs for your products!

Author: Megha Malik

As a passionate entrepreneur and creative brand consultant with experience of 14 years in digital, branding and packaging industry, it is my honest effort to put my experiences and knowledge of industry towards readers. A chartered accountant by degree but a marketing personality in blood has motivated her to take in designing industry as a career. With her fun-loving personality and sharp branding skills, she is a great motivational speaker on her YouTube channel, an active member in various business channels offline as well as online. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.