1. Make a good research
Before you start designing it is essential that you do a proper research. You should start from your target customers, analysing their age, gender, values, education. These are all vital information that will help your design decisions. When you know exactly which is your customer you can start researching about competing products or brands as much as possible. This information will help you to avoid designing a label that’s too close to a competing product and it will let you know what design to create to capture your customer attention. Moreover you should surely know where this product will be sold, even the country. For example, if you're designing a label for a jam brand that will be sold in supermarkets, then you will need to differentiate it from all the goods that will be placed next to it. If this product will be sold online you should have a totally different approach.
3. Define the dimensions of your label design
Choosing the right dimensions of your adhesive label is fundamental. You should start from the physical dimensions of the bottle or jar. If you don't have it don't panic. You can ask your customer to send you the technical sheet. What we suggest to you is to try to fit your label on the bottle or jar. You can simply cut a piece of paper with its dimensions and stick on the bottle. It will help you a lot!
4. Define the informations and the hierarchy
To design a product label do not simply means creating an eye-catching graphic design but it also involves providing information to the final consumer. Certain elements such as the name of the product, the slogan and the company logo must have greater emphasis on your adhesive labels. For what concerns the other information you can decide how and where it will be displayed, taking into considerations that for some product labels there are rules to follow to comply with the law.
5. Choose the right font
Usually, a product label contains a lot of text and therefore choosing the right typography to reflect the product is the key. A nice way to position all the informations is by typographic pairing. The costumer can easily recognize the pieces of information with the help of the contrast. The main objective of typographic pairing is to display the relationship between the informations and different type choices. Moreover you should use fonts that reflect the nature of the product. Make sure that the typeface doesn’t become too complex and lose out on the readability.
Depending on your skills as a designer, you might choose to create custom hand lettering for the label, rather than relying on a pre-existing font. The advantage of this is that you can create something unique to the product.
6. Consider the visual elements
The visual elements of the label design are just as important as its font.Some adhesive labels require illustration and graphic design elements. Pictures and illustrations are particularly useful for creating a feeling around the product that is difficult to obtain with words alone. Of course the style of the label design will depend a lot on the product you are designing for. If you are designing a label for a new white wine from a local producer for example, then you might include imagery of vineyard or something that will express its flavour.
7. Choose the right color scheme
Choosing the right colours is one of the most important aspects of designing a great product label. The colours you use will depend on many factors, including the type of product you are designing the label for, the target and the colours used by competing brands. Moreover each color has its own psychological effect on the consumer.