The JOURNAL

If you Googled “what is a CPG packaging designer” and landed on ten agency pages telling you they “craft compelling visual narratives for consumer packaged goods,” close the tabs. That’s not an answer. It’s a LinkedIn headline with a thesaurus open. Here’s the real one. A CPG packaging designer is the person responsible for turning […]

You Googled “how to hire a packaging designer” and landed here instead of some SEO-stuffed article written by a packaging supplier who wants to sell you boxes. Good. Stay. I’m a packaging designer. I’ve been doing this for 15 years and I’ve seen founders spend more money fixing bad packaging decisions than they ever would […]

Packaging Design Mistakes. You’ve got a great product. You’ve done the hard yards. Sorted the formula, found a manufacturer, convinced yourself the market’s ready. And then you slap some packaging on it, launch, and… nothing. Not because your product is bad. Because your packaging is doing you dirty. After years of working with CPG founders, […]

Read about packaging that stands out on store shelves I was in a founder forum recently. Someone had posted a photo of their fruit pouch packaging asking which tagline would work better. The packaging was beautiful. Soft, warm, illustrated. A little rabbit on the front, earthy tones, the kind of thing that makes you want […]

Do you want to work with the person who sold you the work or the person actually doing it? That’s the question nobody in the packaging design industry wants you to ask out loud. So I will. Packaging Design Agency vs Studio: The Honest Version You hired the agency. Great call with someone senior. Charming. […]

Finding a packaging designer is easy. The right packaging designer, the one who won’t quietly torch your launch is slightly harder. There are a lot of people on the internet who will put your logo on a pouch, call it packaging design, send you a Dropbox link, and wish you luck. Some of them are […]

The honest answer for funded CPG founders on how much packaging costs, what you get at each price point, and what bad packaging actually costs you. You’ve got a product that works. You’ve spent real money proving it works. Now you’re getting quotes from designers that range from $800 to $15,000 and you’re wondering what […]

How to Find the Right Packaging Designer (Without Getting Burned). You’ve built something worth talking about. Now you need packaging that makes a stranger on a shelf (someone rushed, distracted, and spoiled for choice) reach for yours first. The wrong designer will cost you a lot more than their invoice. Here’s how to avoid them. […]

If you are trying to choose between a packaging design agency vs studio this is the breakdown nobody in the industry wants to publish. Do you want to work with the person who sold you the work or the person actually doing it? That is the question nobody asks out loud. So I will. That’s […]

You nailed the formula. Found the manufacturer. Built the Shopify store at 2am while your partner watched something on Netflix you’ll never catch up on. And then you packaged it in something that looks like it belongs next to the generic ibuprofen at the back of a pharmacy shelf. Three months later you’re blaming Meta […]