Shelf tests happen standing up, at arm length, in poor light. Shoppers give a package around two seconds before moving on, so the job of the front panel is to be read, not admired.
Structure comes before artwork. The shape of the carton or bag decides how a range stacks, how it ships, and how much of the front panel is still visible when a row of them is pushed together.
On the back, order matters more than style. Ingredients, allergens, net weight, and instructions need a fixed hierarchy so nothing important ends up in a corner where it cannot be found.
The final step is the least glamorous and the most valuable: preparing files the way the printer needs them. Correct dielines, bleed, spot colours where required, and a written substrate specification save weeks of back and forth.
- Test the front panel at arm length before refining detail.
- Choose the structure first; artwork follows the dieline.
- Give regulatory information a fixed, repeatable order.
- Ask the printer for their file requirements before artwork is final.