All great packaging has one thing in common great graphic design. If you can find a good packaging design freelancer, your product will sell like a fire, and if it’s made by a packaging designer who doesn’t, you may end up on dusty shelves.

Everyone wants great packaging designs, but how do you find such a packaging designer? Let’s take a look at finding a good freelance designer.

Before start

Before hiring a designer, it’s a good idea to compile some information about your business that designers need to know. If not properly organized, the designer’s work can lead to a poor understanding of your business and products. Therefore, we recommend starting with a well-organized answer to the following questions

What is your business and what products do you sell?

Share what products you are selling, what services your company offers, and what goals it has. If you have a specific company goal or value, it is better to share it first to help storytelling.

Who is your target audience?

Does your product target a specific age group, gender, or occupation? Be as specific as possible so designers know right away what they need to research and target. Especially if you’re targeting a specific niche or audience, your results can be very different from targeting your customers in general. Imagine designing a product for a wealthy, retired male elderly customer. This should be absolutely different from products intended for men in their 20s and 50s in general.

What is the goal of this packaging design project?

Set the tone and manner of the design you want. Set keywords such as luxurious, black and white, etc., in what mood the final design should be completed. If you have a specific reference, it’s good to share it with you. When passing in a reference, please tell us why you chose this design as a reference. Also, tell the designer if your goal is to stand out on the shelves or share it on social media.

Who are your competitors?

Who are the main competitors competing with you in the market?

Knowing your competitors in advance allows designers to understand your products and business elements and differentiate them or make them similar depending on your goals.
If you’re thinking about making a package, read this: How to communicate your brand message through package design

When is the project deadline?

It is a key element of any project. Set a deadline in mind by the date your package should be produced at the factory. It is recommended to set the date of the interim result report for interim feedback as well. If you only check the results without reporting in the middle, there is not enough time to revise when the results are different from the designs you wanted, and more time and effort are required for designers. Also, keep in mind that the design cost is usually higher for urgent projects with close deadlines.
Tell us your budget
Depending on your budget, the details that go into the package may vary. Because some design elements or printing options can cost you a lot, it’s a good idea to know your budget for your design and printing and manufacturing costs. Share this with your designer before signing.

Portfolio

Cheaper doesn’t mean better. The difference between a cheaper student portfolio and a professional portfolio can be seen through feedback from surrounding design, print and product experts and consumers. It’s good to see designs full of creative ideas from students, but working with a designer who has experience in printing in practice rather than ideas helps to prevent accidents in the packaging process. In addition, experienced designers know better how to create good-looking packages while avoiding expensive printing and production costs.

Where to find packaging designers

Design Agency

Hiring a design agency is safer if you have more money in hand. The agency has a trusted working portfolio and has proven experts.

Hiring an agency costs a little more and can be a little more difficult to get in touch with compared to working with freelance designers. About the size and reputation of the agency, you can get information from previous clients in their portfolios.

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Packaging Design Freelance

Given the nature of the design industry, where supply is high compared to demand, finding a packaging design freelancer at an affordable price seems very easy. However, finding a packaging designer easily and finding a packaging design freelancer that you can trust and deliver great results is a completely different matter.

The quality of freelance design varies widely. You can check out some of our packaging designers on Behance or Dribble, and get in touch if you like them.

In general, their work quality and practical experience are proportional to the cost of packaging design, so it is necessary to match the budget and eye level.

A platform to find freelancers

Behance and Dribble show the work of almost every designer and agency around the world. You can also get in touch with them, and it’s very easy to find their previous work and team members.
In addition, you can filter by country, project, design field, etc., so if your target market is the US, it is good to check the work of other designers targeting the US who can better understand their customers and use it as a reference.

A must-read if you’re thinking about creating a packaging design  9 reasons why packaging design matters

Agency Platform

With Wicket, you can easily check the careers, portfolios, and quotations of applicants by simply registering the project details. They can also see the testimonials left by clients they’ve worked with before, which helps with trust. The platform directly mediates the meeting to verify applicants, and after that, a fair contract is established through the standard contract.

Freelance Network

In the case of  Sumo, the advantage of being able to check the profiles of packaging design freelancers and the comments left by previous clients is that payment and project progress is made quickly. However, due to the nature of the fast platform, there are many designers from beginner to beginner level rather than long-time experts, so it is suitable for short-term, low-cost projects rather than long-term projects.

How to do your own packaging design

Finally, there is a way to design your own. Because you yourself know the product best, designing it yourself is an effective way to reduce communication costs.

You’re not an expert, but how do you design your own?

You can design your own package in Packable.

A sample package design was completed in 5 minutes. Package production is also possible

Packable makes the difficult package design process easy and simple and shows the cost required for production through an instant estimate system, so it doesn’t take long from design to production. In addition, since we have several partner manufacturers in Korea, we can respond immediately to urgent changes or calls.

To read more articles like GIFT PACKAGING OF A SQUARE AND RECTANGULAR GIFT? please visit our website SM Custom packaging.