When designing interesting food labels, drastic change can work

There are many good reasons to switch up food and beverage labels. Whether introducing a new product to a line or attempting to up the excitement around a current offering, a bold label design may be what your brand needs to get customers’ attention. This enticement should be enough to overcome concerns about making a change.

There is no truly ironclad reason for refusing to try a visually interesting design. Even iconic brands can try out strategies that leave their classic imagery behind, in favor of new looks that fit in better with their current strategies and identities.

New Campbell’s Line Dares to Evolve
There are few packages more memorable than the red-and-white Campbell’s soup can. That’s why Packaging World’s new report on the Campbell’s Well Yes! soup line is so intriguing. For these cans, the Campbell Soup Company’s designer’s decided to ditch red and white, as well as the classic logo. The nine new wholesome soups will be housed in green cans that use photographs to show off their ingredients.

The gamble the producer is taking here is that consumers today care about fresh and simple flavors, and their interest in foods with limited, natural ingredients is greater than their Campbell’s brand loyalty. This boldness should be a clear indication that your brand can make drastic design choices to suit customer interests. When asked to describe the design philosophy behind the can, Campbell Soup Company’s Terry Schwartz called it “optimistic, joyful, surprising, yet grounded.”

Enhance the Flavor
When you create labels for your food products, you’re not just putting a pretty face on those items in stores. You may be changing customers’ perception of how those items taste. Quartz noted that there is research indicating that people experience food and beverages differently based on how it’s presented.

The source cited the work of psychologist Charles Spence, who has made a strong link between look and taste. If you want your products to have maximum appeal with consumers, it’s worth putting in the time to design or redesign the labels. You can create a positive cycle – people take your product home because its new label looks good, and keep buying it because it tastes great – a sentiment enhanced by the packaging.

Independent-minded food and beverage producers can take their labeling in-house with a label printer – but not just any hardware will do. When it’s time to print labels with bold imagery, you need a printer that can give you professional quality. Check out such an offering – the Afinia L801 – in our U.S. store on on our Canadian site.