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Packaging design

Packaging design for brands that have to earn their shelf.

Koolbrand is a branding, packaging and marketing agency, and food packaging design is one of its core disciplines. We work with food, drink and consumer brands from Vigo (Spain), with offices in Buenos Aires and Miami. Strategy, structure, graphics and print-ready artwork built as one system — so the pack looks like what it costs, holds its price and prints exactly the way you signed it off. Twenty years, more than 120 brands, over 60 awarded projects.

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Gourmet canned food — Madras Gourmand
Gourmet canned foodMadras Gourmand
Cured ham — Atilano Anlló
Cured hamAtilano Anlló
Frozen food — Ibercook
Frozen foodIbercook
Nuts & snacks — El Nogal
Nuts & snacksEl Nogal
Wine — Novo Século
WineNovo Século
Canned seafood — Europacífico
Canned seafoodEuropacífico
StrategyStructure & dielinesGraphicsPrint-ready artworkGuidelines
Packaging for food, drink and retail →
Canned & seafoodWine & spiritsCured meatFrozen
20 years · 120+ brands · 60+ awards

What a pack has to do

In the aisle nobody is reading. They are scanning.

A shopper walks a shelf at about one meter per second and gives your product roughly two and a half seconds. In that window the pack has to say what it is, who it is for and why it costs what it costs.

That is a design problem with rules, not a matter of taste. We solve it the same way every time: decide what the pack must communicate first, then build everything else around that decision.

01

Legible at arm’s length

If it does not read at a meter and a half, at a quarter of its size, it does not read. We test the design small and far before we ever look at it big and close.

02

Priced by the eye

Material, finish and typographic hierarchy tell a shopper what to pay before they find the price tag. Get that wrong and you discount forever.

03

Designed as a range

We design the system, not the SKU. When the seventh flavour arrives two years later, the rules for it already exist and nobody has to reinvent the pack.

04

Print-ready, not print-hopeful

Dielines, substrates, inks and finishes agreed with your printer before artwork is signed off. What we hand over is what comes off the press.

Selected packaging

Packs that had to sell themselves.

Canned seafood packaging by Koolbrand

Canned seafood

A gourmet range that reads premium at arm’s length.

Rebranding a specialty canning house without losing the character that made it worth buying in the first place.

Rebranding · Packaging

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Sparkling wine packaging by Koolbrand

Sparkling wine

Breaking the codes of an appellation.

Naming, label and packaging for a sparkling albariño that had to look nothing like its category and still belong to it.

Naming · Branding · Packaging

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Frozen seafood packaging by Koolbrand

Frozen seafood

A frozen range that stops looking frozen.

Appetite in a category that usually settles for a product shot on a blue background.

Packaging · Range system

View case →

How a packaging project runs

Five phases, and you can stop after any of them.

01

Brief & audit

Category codes · Competitors · Shelf · Constraints

02

Strategy

What the pack says first · Range architecture

03

Design

Routes · Structure · Hierarchy · Shelf tests

04

Artwork

Dielines · Inks · Mandatory copy · Proofs

05

Production

Press check · Guidelines · Supplier handover

FAQ

Before you ask.

How much does a packaging design project cost?

It depends on how many SKUs the range has and whether the brand already exists. A single label on an established identity is a different job from a range of twelve with strategy and naming underneath it. We scope in phases and price each one, so you can stop after strategy if the answer changes.

How long does it take?

A single pack on an existing identity: four to six weeks. A full range with strategy, naming and a system: ten to fourteen weeks. Print production runs on your printer’s calendar, not ours, and we plan around it from the first week.

Do you work with clients in the United States?

Yes. We work remotely from Spain with brands in the US and we have an office in Miami. Much of that work comes from Hispanic-founded companies that want European design standards without having to change language to get them.

Who signs off regulatory compliance on the label?

We lay out the mandatory information your market requires so it is legible, correctly sized and in the right place. The legal validation for that market — FDA nutrition panels, allergen statements, net content rules — is confirmed by your regulatory advisor or co-packer, and we build the artwork around what they confirm.

Can you work with the printer we already use?

Yes, and we prefer it. We speak to them before design starts: dielines, substrate, number of inks, finishes and what their press can actually hold. It is cheaper to design inside those limits than to discover them at proof stage.

Do you redesign existing packaging, or only create from scratch?

Both. Most of our work is redesign: a range that has drifted, a brand that outgrew its pack, or a producer moving from commodity to premium. Starting from something is usually harder than starting from nothing, and we plan for that.

Next step

Tell us about your product.

Send us what you are launching, how many SKUs it has and where it will sit. We will tell you, honestly, whether we are the right agency and how we would approach it.

  • 01

    Fill in the form

    Two minutes, no commitment.

  • 02

    20-minute call

    In English or Spanish, whichever you prefer.

  • 03

    An honest answer

    A phased plan with real timings, or a referral if we are not the fit.

We take on a limited number of projects at a time.

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