As the year 2021 progresses, top packaging design companies in India are identifying and focusing on the latest design updates and trends for packaging. On the face of it, these designs look very different from each other. There are simple geometrical designs along with intricate characters and super-detailed ink drawings. However, there’s a deep continuity. The focus shifts from packaging design that instantly appears as commercial to packaging that signifies art.
In the year 2020, brand owners understood the importance of e-commerce in their everyday lives. And that dependency and role are here to stay. E-commerce eliminates the experience of visiting a store and journeying through the curated brand ambience. This experience is something that even the most intuitive websites cannot replicate. Consequently, packaging designers and brand owners need to increase the efforts to deliver a piece of branding right to the customer’s door.
The idea of improving packaging layout isn’t aimed at replacing the in-store experience but to interact with consumers where they are at the moment and where they will be in the future. The objective is to create a new, more interesting and unique brand experience with the distinct packaging trends of 2021.
The Top-Most Packaging Design Trends of 2021
1. Tiny Patterns and Illustrations
The use of patterns and illustrations isn’t limited to making the packaging attractive. The design trend focuses on helping consumers know what the product is all about. 2021 will have a lot of minute patterns and illustrations that only aim at telling you what is inside the package and some more details about the product.
The abstract or simplified illustrations create an artistic appeal of what the package holds instead of an actual look of the product itself. These patterns and illustrations will be used playfully and appealingly. For instance, a bag of tortilla chips will not use a real photo of the chips but use triangle patterns that look like the tortilla chips.
2. Authentically Vintage Packaging
The trend for vintage-inspired packaging has been here for a long time. However, this year, it goes a step further. It creates an unboxing experience that appears so authentic and realistic that you’ll feel as if you have travelled through time.
Packaging will no longer be generic. Instead, it will carry an authentic old-school look and feel. The consumer will live a thoroughly immersive experience. The packaging of products will be such that you won’t be able to distinguish it from something your great-grandmother used in her time. The design and layout of the package will transport you to a different time zone.
The idea of using authentically vintage packaging goes beyond labels and logos. It covers the entire brand experience, using textures, materials, bottle shapes, outer packaging, and imagery that reflects a vintage appeal. The package doesn’t simply have a few fun retro details. It is almost like it has been extracted from a shelf that was frozen in time.
3. Fine Art
The latest packaging trends rely on creating designs that appear as a piece of art. You can expect this design more on high-end products and some mid-range products. The inspiration for these designs is drawn from paintings and paint textures.
Designers choose to playfully integrate these elements into the design or make them the focal point. The essence of this packaging trend lies in distinguishing between fine art and packaging design, highlighting that anything, even a box of cheese that will ultimately land in the recycle bin, can be unique and aesthetically appealing.
Although a few designers are inspired by the old masters, like the packaging of cheese below, having a still life painting, others draw inspiration from fluid painting and abstract painting techniques.
The key to great packaging design with fine art lies in its texture. Designers are attempting to bring out the kind of textures you would enjoy on a freshly-poured resin painting or a long-dried oil painting.
4. Technical and Anatomical Ink Drawings
The packaging trends of 2021 are inclined more towards the “art gallery” instead of the “commercial graphic design”. Apart from tactile textures and bold geometry, your favourite products can be packaged in designs that feel that they have emerged from an engineering blueprint or an anatomical illustration.
For this trend, you can expect to see more designs with intricate detail, appearing to have been inked and sketched by hand. You’ll most likely feel that the design is prepared for an ancient science publication.
5. Extremely Simplistic Geometry
Designs with hyper-simplistic yet bold geometry will also be popular this year. When it comes to geometrical packaging trends, you’ll see neat lines, expressive colours, and sharp angles, adding an edge to the design. Similar to the trend with patterns and illustrations, this design gives consumers a clue about what the product stands for.
However, the difference here is that the designs are conceptual and symbolic. At first, you will feel that it is simple, but it leaves an insightful impact on the consumer’s mind. It allows brands to develop a statement and create a lasting impression.
6. The Use of Product Names
A few designers are opting to use the product’s name as the focal point of their design. There are no illustrations, and the use of the logo is also minimal. These designs give importance to lettering to give the product’s name complete attention. Moreover, the names on these packaging designs appear as a work of art, creating a distinctive personality for the whole package.
This type of packaging eliminates any doubt regarding the name of the product and what kind of product it is. In a nutshell, it is the ideal packaging trend for businesses that focus on their product and desire to increase brand awareness using the name.
Strong typography is the foundation of this design and aims to deliver the brand’s aesthetic. The use of any other design elements is just to enhance the name even further.
7. Organically Shaped Colour Blocking
In 2021, you will notice a new look in organic colour blocking. Designers will use different textures, creative colour combinations, and varying shapes and weights. They are no longer clear and straight-edged boxes that create clean lines and perfect grids.
The colour blocking designs are now unbalanced, dappled, freckled, and uneven collages. Looking at these designs, it feels like they have drawn inspiration from a dalmatian’s coat or an eclectic flower garden. The designs feel organic and real.
Designers block patterns on top of colours. They play with unpredicted colour palettes and shapes like squiggles and spirals.
8. Story-driven Packaging with Quirky Characters
An important strategy for effective branding is storytelling. In the year 2021, the focus on storytelling is going to be much more than what it was in previous years.
Brand owners will introduce characters that are much more than mascots and live their own fleshed-out stories. These characters will not be static mascots but depict scenes. To the consumer, it will appear as if the individual panel of a graphic novel is placed in front of them.
Consequently, the consumer doesn’t need to visit the brand’s website to read the story or understand the brand’s messaging from the ads they run since the main character will be delivered to your doorstep. The packaging will itself tell you a story.
These characters add life to the brand’s story, mostly in a cartoonish and interesting way. It gives you the experience of reading a comic book when you take a look at the packaging design.
9. Picture-perfect Symmetry
Packaging trends contradict each other every year. In 2021 as well, the pattern continues. Some packaging designers tend to use organically imperfect shapes in their designs, while the others incline towards perfect symmetry. The products are designed in a way that they appeal to our sense of order and give us the feeling of being grounded during the chaos.
All the product packaging classified as picture-perfect symmetrical designs aren’t tight, intricate designs. Some more disconnected and looser patterns include negative space to bring out a less closed-in feel. However, they are more or less symmetrical like the complex designs, giving individuals the visually satisfying sense of perfection that defines this trend.
10. Solid Colour
Another packaging trend that you will frequently come across this year is products packaged in single colours. The colour palette is limited, but the trend has as much character as the other designs in this list. Here, it is the copy and often unexpected colour choices that communicate with the consumer.
Designers using this packaging trend choose bright and bold colours. This choice of colours gives a fresh touch to the packaging. It isn’t the boring all-white packaging that the Macbook comes in. It is packaging in loud and highly bold tones.
Additionally, in certain cases, designers select an unusual shade to generate a mood and direct the consumer’s eye towards the copy. The goal is to build anticipation and inform the buyer about the product instead of showing it immediately.
Final Takeaways
If you’re ready to launch a new product in 2021, or you wish to rebrand the current product look, discuss one of these trends with your packaging design agency. Packaging design plays a crucial role in influencing buyers to learn about your product even before they open and use it. So, use the design and layout of your product packaging as an opportunity to impress the consumer as soon as they lay their eye on it.
