The Importance of Color In Packaging Design

Color is a key component in the function of packaging design. Picking the right colors in any design is crucial to how your product is portrayed in your consumer's mind and in differentiating your product from the pack.

There are basic guidelines and rules, such as the psychology of color, to help get a jump start on picking the right colors for your design. But as we all know, some rules are meant to be broken (or just change). For instance, black used to be a "no-no" when it came to food packaging bag design, now it is used quite regularly.

There are however, instances where the convention does deserve to be respected. A prime example is when a product revolves around a certain flavor: banana, cherry, etc. This calls for the use of the appropriate colors, yellow, red, respectively. The lesson here is to know the convention; that way when/if you stray away from it, you can do it strategically and with purpose.

Before diving in to choosing colors, do your research. What are the latest trends? What grabs the consumer's attention now? Is this a color you want to stick with or is it something you want to easily change?

When it comes to colors and design, remember, it's not about how it looks, it's about how it works!