Packaging design for small producers in Japan

Packaging design for a small producer is a specific problem. The print run is short, the budget is not large, and the packaging needs to work hard because it is often the first physical thing a customer holds. This article covers the decisions that come up most often in this kind of project, using a gift box for a small ceramics maker as an imagined worked example.

Starting with the dieline

A dieline is the flat template that shows how a box or package unfolds. For most small producers, the dieline comes from the printer, not the designer. The printer knows what their cutting and creasing equipment can handle, and working from their dieline avoids the risk of designing a structure that cannot be produced.

In the imagined ceramics example, the maker's regular printer supplies four dielines, one for each box size. The designer works from those files, placing the surface design within the panels and flagging bleed areas and fold lines clearly in the final artwork.

Spot colour on short runs

Full-colour (CMYK) printing is cost-effective on long runs. On short runs of a few hundred units, two spot colours are often a better choice: the per-unit cost is lower, and the colour is more consistent across the run.

For the ceramics boxes, two DIC spot colours might be chosen: a warm grey and a deep indigo. Both are standard in Japanese printing and available from most commercial printers. Uncoated kraft board makes colours print slightly more muted than they appear on screen, which is accounted for in the artwork by slightly increasing the ink density.

What the designer delivers

Print-ready artwork for packaging is typically delivered as a PDF with all fonts outlined, images embedded, and spot colours correctly named and separated. The dieline is included as a separate layer, usually in a different colour, so the printer can distinguish it from the printed artwork.

The time from artwork approval to finished boxes depends on the printer and on the box structure. The printer's quotation gives the real figure, and it is worth asking for it before the schedule is fixed.

Packaging is a format we like working in. If you have a product that needs a box, a bag, or a label, and you are based in Japan, it is worth getting in touch about a brief.