The packaging design is a vital part of your brand’s visual identity. Even if the customer is unaware of your brand and the values you stand for, the packaging design can show them all this and more. It is a canvas for you to express your personality, brand messaging, and product benefits for the world to know. 

As the retail industry becomes even more competitive, brands need every advantage they can get. And good packaging design easily tops the list. In fact, one Ipsos consumer survey found that packaging design made an impact on purchase decisions for 72% of American consumers!

But the question remains, are packaging design trends really important? Can a brand truly benefit by launching a trendy packaging design? 

Customer perception and tastes are always the underlying reason behind any design trend. So following the packaging design trends of 2022 can make a customer notice you without a lot of hassle. 

Understanding trends gives you an insight into customer sentiment, but you must consider how each design style works with your brand before adopting it.

This roundup of 2022 packaging trends from Kimp is here to give you the rundown of each trend, its application, and help you consider its relevance for your brand. 

So take a look and make the right choice. 

Packaging design in 2021 

Before we look ahead, a small recap of the packaging design trends of the past year is always useful. It gives you insight into how consumer sentiment changes over time and helps you reevaluate your branding designs. 

So what was trending in packaging design in 2021? 

Well, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the retail industry like never before. And this applies to brick-and-mortar stores and ecommerce brands too. Both of them had to appeal to the newfound sensibilities in consumers, right from sustainability to convenient packaging that stands out as well. 

Some major packaging design trends in 2021 were: 

• Minimalistic packaging designs: The overall love for minimalism, right from lifestyle to design choices, extended to the packaging industry as well. Some features of this packaging design ranged from simplistic design elements, to unicolor designs, limited imagery, and the use of negative space. 
• Textured packaging design: The need to provide customer experience right from the very first contact increased during the pandemic. Even the conservative customers will get hooked if you present interesting and alternative textured packaging. Invoking the primary senses always works, and textured packaging design helps you do that.
• Illustrations in packaging design: Designs that make the customer pause and spend some time interacting with your brand can help brand awareness immensely. So custom illustrations that spoke of the product, customer stories, or even the brand’s story were a major hit among the packaging design trends in 2021.

With that quick throwback, it is now to look at the predictions for the 2022 packaging design trends. 

2022’s Top 7 Packaging Design Trends 

Do you want to know how to position your products in the coming year to attract the maximum attention? Is there a particular target audience you wish to do better with and seek design inputs for it?

In the following section, the Kimp team is here to answer all your queries with the top 2022 packaging design trends.

So with no further ado, let’s get started. 

1) Vintage design style in packaging design 

The love of antiques is ever-lasting. The popularity of vintage design style also comes from the same place. Vintage design styles evoke a sense of familiarity and nostalgic memories in consumers. Even if they are unfamiliar with your brand or product, the vintage design style will bring you both one step closer. 

The COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty in the future made the attraction for vintage design style even more prominent. Everyone wanted to go back to pre-pandemic eras. And today, customers from all walks of life and generations appreciate the vintage design style in packaging design. And that is why we expect this to be one of the most popular 2022 packaging design trends.

But how to perfectly ace the vintage design style packaging design? 

• You can include imagery reminiscent of yesteryears or rehash popular packaging designs from a particular era relevant to your product.
• Some colors and palettes speak of vintage design specifically. So even if the imagery is not working for you, the colors still can. 
• Even with the package shape, style, and material, you can give your packaging design a vintage twist. For example, ditch the plastic for Tin boxes or go with cartons/paper bags.

2) Pop Art packaging design 

Another design trend rooted in nostalgia is Pop Art packaging design. Popular culture born from the shared love of TV shows, movies, comic books, and entertainment is a worldwide phenomenon. More importantly, it is a magnet for the Gen Z and millennial audience. By leveraging this design style for your packaging design in 2022, you stand a chance to be relevant to the largest customer demographic of our times.

What pop culture essentially gives customers is a sense of home, no matter where they are. So they don’t need to know about your brand. If you tell them that you understand their language, you win a lot of brownie points. First impression barriers are easier to cross with Pop Art backing you up. 

Pop Art design style’s hallmark elements like bold colors, large typography, and striking imagery can attract even the uninitiated customer. Even if someone is unfamiliar with the inner secrets of fandom, these design elements will pull them in. So it is a win-win packaging design trend for 2022 all over.

Kimp Tip: While this packaging design style can work across industries, it has a higher success rate in FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) products (as seen below) and other products aimed at the younger generation. Even if it may not be completely relevant for your brand, you can leverage the benefits of this design style to show affiliation to a particular pop culture trend by launching a limited edition series.

3) Sustainable packaging design 

Today’s consumers are conscious of our planet’s state, and they appreciate when a brand is willing to make a positive impact. Every step you take to better the health of our planet makes the sustainability-conscious consumer see you in a better light. 

And a very obvious and public step for this is to adopt a sustainable packaging design. Given how eco-conscious topics are seeing heavy traction in the last couple of years, we expect sustainable packaging design to be one of the major packaging design trends in 2022. 

However, designing sustainable packaging can be tricky. You have many choices to make here, right from the material, printing method, manufacturing technology, and so on. These choices will determine many aspects of your design, too. Sustainable packaging material specifically is only compatible with certain printing techniques, so the colors and patterns you can use here get limited. 

But it can be an enjoyable challenge for you and your design team. Ensure that you use earthy and neutral shades in sustainable packaging design with images and illustrations clearly indicating the nature of the packaging.

This will generate interest and compel the consumer to pick up your product and learn more about it. 

Kimp Tip: When you have a sustainable packaging concept in mind, ensure that you include the material specs and the printing techniques in the design brief for the packaging design. A design team like Kimp Graphics will then ensure that they pick the appropriate color system and design styles. 

4) Unique shapes in packaging design 

Do you remember the bear-shaped box of gummies? Or the X-shaped UNO card box? Even though these came out years ago, they still hold a lot of recall value in the market. It is simply because designers dared to think outside the box, literally. 

Packaging designs that go outside the typical shape constraints and come up with relevant and eye-catching design options have always won customers’ hearts. Just think, from the customers’ point of view, for a second. What would you pick? A regular box of headphones or something in an intriguing shape? Even before you consider the merits of the product, the shape will win.

Designing an offbeat package shape needs attention on composition, placement of text, branding elements, and the overall display of the product in it. You have to ensure that the product packaging sits in a way that your brand’s logo, product name, and other important details are easily visible. The color of the packaging design must also complement the product. 

Looking to explore this packaging design trend in 2022? Or any of the other packaging design trends in this blog? Book a call with the Kimp Graphics team to learn more about our services and unlimited graphic design plan.

5) Minimalistic color-based packaging design 

The year 2021 was one of minimalism. And we completely expect the same trend to continue in 2022 as well. However, for packaging design, minimalistic colors will take the limelight. So what does this look like? 

In this 2022 packaging design trend, packaging designs will feature a dominant color instead of a color blend. This single color must be striking enough to capture the passerby’s attention and invoke the emotion you wish to. For example, red speaks of energy and has been the color of Coca-Cola for decades now. The color green often denotes life, refreshment, and abundance, making it a perfect choice for the 7-Up drink. 

Bright-colored packages will dominate supermarket shelves and ecommerce packages in 2022. The choice of color for these packaging designs is, however, completely up to you. 

You can choose the color based on:

• Your brand personality and the corresponding emotion you wish to invoke in the customer. 
• The product you wish to market. For example, fruit beverages can use the fruit colors themselves on the package. Imagine a shelf full of juice cartons in a strawberry red color sending out a powerful statement. 
• Trending design styles and the relevant colors. If you adapt Pop Art or vintage design styles, the colors will also have to be along the same line. 

Kimp Tip: Based on the printing medium and the packaging material, designers have to choose different color schemes and design outputs. So discuss the packaging design decisions in detail with all your teams and experiment with a few options before you go to market. 

6) Luxurious packaging design 

If you are looking for a packaging design trend in 2022 that allows you to display your sense of elegance and incorporate luxury, we have just the design style for you. Of late, customers are showing a lot of love to design styles that display luxury and include colors like silver, gold, and other understated bling.

Luxurious packaging design allows you to clearly communicate the value of your brand and product to your consumers. This is important when the product is of a higher value. You will not expect Tiffany’s ring to come in a box covered in all colored stripes, will you? 

And we expect this trend to take off heavily in 2022 because customers now expect the packaging design to match the product inside it too. Unboxing a product is an experience, and every step you can take to make it pleasurable will score you points. 

You must take care of the packaging material, texture, printing techniques, colors, and font style for this packaging design to be effective. Consider using techniques like embossing and engraving for a truly unforgettable luxurious packaging design. Use appropriate and conservative typefaces that reflect the tone well. 

You can also take a cue from the principles of fine art to bring the luxury product aesthetic to your packaging design.

7) Product-centric packaging design 

This goes without saying. But it is always helpful if the packaging design clearly displays what the underlying product is. And you can choose to stuff this information in a corner or make the packaging design all about the product. Guess what is going to be a major 2022 packaging trend? 

Yes, you guessed right. Product-centric packaging design is going to be on every shelf in the coming year. Now, there are many ways to pack the package with the product details, and we have some listed here just for you: 

• mages from a professional product photoshoot that display it in attractive and aesthetic ways. 
• Custom illustrations to bring the product to life and show the customers how it would work in their everyday life. 
• Storytelling illustrations to detail the product’s ingredients, technical specifications, usages, and other details. 
• Small-form images to give a sneak peek at the inside product. 

This packaging design trend celebrates your product and makes customers fall in love with it. It is marketing in its purest form.

Design your unique packaging design with Kimp 

A new year is a great time to launch a new product or to enter a new market. Or just give your brand packaging design a makeover to keep up with the times. Packaging takes a lot of investment and sets the tone for your brand’s visual identity in the market. It can directly affect your sales and revenue. 

Such an important aspect of your branding and marketing needs professional care so that your investment sees a hefty ROI. With Kimp Graphics, you can create unlimited packaging designs for your products and go through as many revisions as you want. Any style or packaging design trends you wish to explore, consider it done. 

Sign up for the free trial now and get started.