In the highly visual, competitive retail landscape, achieving the ideal product package design is critically important.
Perfection is the coming together of many elements — typography, brand colours, copy and materials — to tell a story and attract the consumer’s attention.
In this article, we’ll be touching on one incredibly powerful differentiator brand owners often neglect to consider — customised caps and closures, in particular those with embossed or printed designs.
How can embossing, debossing and printing techniques boost shelf impact, coax sales and, ultimately, drive loyalty? Let’s explore their transformative impact for your next package design.
The Quest For Creativity In Packaging Design
The product package is the consumer’s first interaction with a brand. An understanding of the psychology of packaging can allow brand owners to make an instantaneous impact against established competitors.
Especially at retail and store-bought level, consumers make last-minute judgments when faced with products. Over 7 in 10 say that product packaging design influences their purchase intention. Essentially, what’s on the outside of the package matters just as much as what’s inside, if not more so.
Research has also shown that purchase intention is stronger in products that have highly creative packaging — it signals quality and meaning. But what do we mean by ‘creative packaging’?
Creativity is subjective, but many academics and authors point to ‘novelty, originality, flexibility, meaningfulness, emotional content and artistic value’ as indicators. Two dimensions of creativity often cited are ‘divergence’ and ‘relevance’: divergence being the novelty and originality, and relevance being the meaningfulness and value of the package for the consumer.
In packaging, creativity is much coveted by consumers, but how can brand managers achieve it with their designs? It can be as simple and subtle as embossed or printed features on your product.
Printing, Embossing and Debossing: Raising Designs, Visually and Literally
Printing is the most common, traditional and cost-effective way to introduce intricate, vibrant, eye-catching designs into your packaging. There are a number of printing techniques, giving you the freedom to make a concise, customised expression of your brand’s personality in high resolution and full colour.
Embossing is a more advanced way to stand out. It takes your design to another dimension — literally — by adding visual complexity and the perception of texture and depth. It is accomplished by pressing a substrate into a female die that has a design engraved or etched into it, creating a pattern that is raised against the background.
Whilst you might think of embossing as the more contemporary invention, it’s actually derived from long-standing relief sculpture methods. ‘Relief’ comes from the Italian ‘relievare’, to raise — it’s a method where sculpted pieces are attached to a background of the same material.
These techniques have proven their innate power to captivate human audiences for centuries, across Eastern and Western cultures. From the Ishtar Gate of Babylon to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple complex and Mount Rushmore, relief has featured in historic art for over 20,000 years. Thankfully, the power of relief techniques is something that product designers can now harness in their packaging designs!
Many types of materials can be embossed, including paper, plastic and metal. Embossing the product closure, such as the foil cap, is one particularly popular, subtle solution for modern manufacturers. They may want to highlight the logo, brand name or some other decorative artwork, creating visual interest and a sense of luxury attention to detail.
Debossing is essentially the opposite of embossing. The design is imprinted, creating a recessed, sunken effect on the closure surface. Debossing is less frequently seen and harder to produce, helping to reflect a premium, higher-end proposition. It can appear more understated and elegant.
Embossing Equals A More Dynamic Product Package
One virtue to printing, embossing and debossing techniques in foil cap and closure designs is they are adaptable: they can be changed quickly and cost effectively. You can continually refresh your packaging without the need for costly, disruptive wholesale changes to your wider package.
Product managers can easily create one-off designs that align with major events, like sports events, trending TV shows, pop culture trends or seasonal variations. These naturally carry the weight of being limited edition — even potential collector’s items.
In a world of social media scrolling and in-platform e-commerce, where 64% of users are willing to share eye-catching, thumb-stopping package designs with their friends, the benefits of a customised, limited edition package can transcend physical boundaries of a store.
Printed or embossed closures allows you to be playful, without necessitating a complete container shape overhaul. You retain product recognition, whilst having the opportunity to subtly keep your brand relevant and engaging.
Embossing Achieves a Seal of Brand Authenticity
Incorporating specialist printing, embossing or debossing techniques into the product closure has functional benefits, too: it can act as a unique, identifiable brand marker.
These intricate seal designs are naturally far harder and more costly to replicate than simple plain foil closures, dramatically reducing the risk of counterfeiting, safeguarding the integrity of products — a literal and figurative seal of authenticity.
You can also incorporate serial numbers or scannable QR codes, allowing users to certify the authenticity of their product from the manufacturer. That’s not to mention the digital world of smart packaging possibilities opened up by QR codes, allowing brands to tell a story and forge closer connections with customers.
At FORDS, we are also exploring the development of holographic prints or foils that can change appearance based on viewing angle, providing an immediate visual assurance of product authenticity. Other possibilities include specialised security inks, adding another layer of product verification.
Ready to Elevate Your Package Designs?
At FORDS, we are experts in packaging development. With over 100 years’ experience, we’re here to help you in the pursuit of the perfect product package. From food to pharma, we produce innovative, eye-catching packaging designs for products across all industries.
Our cutting-edge technology includes innovative foil capping and sealing systems, which protect millions of diverse products globally. These closures can match the aesthetic of your package in many ways, whether that’s with embossing, debossing or full-colour prints — adding depth, texture, visual appeal and the all-important element of creativity to your packages.
If you start a futurology project, our experts will work closely with you to develop a sales-driving packaging strategy that delivers for your brand, your consumers and the planet. With our lab tech, you also have the opportunity to bring all these possibilities in-house.
Whether you’re planning a new packaging concept, breathing new life in an existing package or want to learn more about our packaging equipment solutions, tell us a little more about your requirements today.
