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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

If you’re launching a product, one of the most important (and most ignored) questions is: how much should printing and packaging actually cost? Not what looks good on Pinterest. Not what your mood board says. What makes sense for your product, your price point, and your profit. Because beautiful packaging that bankrupts you is still […]

The cost of packaging design in 2026 ranges from $1K to $20K, depending on whether you’re paying for basic execution or strategic decision-making. Designers are not spinning a wheel and picking random numbers. No one wakes up and thinks, “Today feels like a twenty-grand label.” Some designers are order takers.Some designers are strategists. Different job. […]

Pro age beauty branding reframes ageing as confidence rather than something to fix. Most beauty branding still treats aging like a crisis. Fix this. Reverse that. Turn back time before it’s too late. But the brands that convert at a premium don’t play that game. They don’t sell empowerment. They don’t sell desirability. They don’t […]

Premium Packaging Design for Food Brands: What Actually Justifies a Higher Price isn’t about cost. It’s about conviction. Most food brands think higher prices are justified by ingredients, provenance, or production costs. Those matter, but they are not what customers pay for first. They pay for belief. Packaging is the fastest way to manufacture that […]

Branding = the outfit.Marketing = leaving the damn house. It’s one of the biggest misconceptions in small business: people think branding and marketing are the same thing. Spoiler aler: they’re not. They’re more like cousins who show up to the same party but have totally different jobs. What Is Branding? Branding is who you are […]