Designing the Perfect Label for Your Private Label Supplements

What’s in a design? How can you really know whether or not your design will be effective?

Designing the perfect label should be impossible, but with this guide, you just might be able to create the perfect label for your product.

The layout of almost any product label usually includes:

Most labels will also include pictures, stories, icons and mission statements or a question.

The required elements of any label tell the consumer what is in the product, how to use it, the weight or amount of product within the container, and the directions and dosages suggested.

Beyond those requirements, you are free to create whatever you want.

Introducing a customer to your brand on every label is suggested. Assuming that they will know your brand with one product is usually a reach. So, to make sure they know and remember a brand, the more unique you can make your label look, the better chance you have of creating a lasting impression.

Most commercial design starts with the basics, I prefer to use Adobe Illustrator. You can also use InDesign, or any other vector-based design program.

Before I begin any label design, I place all of the required elements onto the canvas for a “test fit”. This not only gives me an idea of how much design and creation space I have, but it allows me to create colored boxes that I move into position indicating exactly where each design element will fit.

Using this technique, I carefully place different colored boxes into position. Now I know exactly what space I can fill.

Now, I love white space. I know a lot of people that don’t really like it, but I like to let me designs breathe, so I usually do not butt the boxes next to each other, instead I have a little space between them.

Next, I take my main element and place it. This is the focal point of the entire design. I recommend using just one. It can be an image, special font, a name, a title or any combination of the above. The key here is to have one area to draw a person’s attention to.

Once I have that, I add the title and description. This might seem easy, but I usually like to experiment with the colors to get the look and feel that I really want. I’ve spent hours on some designs and weeks on others, and this step usually takes me the most amount of time. But when I finally get what I like, I know it.

The rest of the design should sort of fall into place. It should complement the main idea and support it. It should support the story or add to the design. This can be done with images, more text, icons showing benefits or more design elements.

Once I have everything done, the rough layout, I step back, take a walk or a break and leave my design there. I let it sit there for a few minutes. Then I come back and I look at it as a whole piece – an entire design.

This is where I might change something just to see how it looks or I may step back and just know that it works.

The perfect design is only perfect when it does three things: 1. It resonates with you and your customer., 2. It is unique and on-brand, and 3. It sells.

The perfect design does all these things, but in the end, one question remains: Does it sell?

As I will cover in next week’s article, it’s really important to run surveys. They can provide a wealth of information when used correctly.

And when a design is really good, you can survey it and I generally use a 70% rule. If 70% of people would buy the product, I consider it done. I’ve run all types of surveys, and they don’t have to be verbal. I’ve placed several designs on shelves next to competitor’s products and surveyed my team. I’ve also taken pictures of real retail shelves and then Photoshopped my new designs and run surveys that way.

To get consumer confirmation is paramount and very valuable. I hope this information provides some insight into how I design and what I consider to be valuable when it comes to labels.

Now go make the perfect label!