Any good product label can attract attention, but the best product labels demand closer inspection. After all, product labels are meant to be both eye-catching and distinctive, so it’s essential to set your product apart from its competitors on the shelf. Utilizing the right colors, graphics and finish will certainly do this, but there are other important factors that go into high quality labels.
One underappreciated element of high quality labels is their variety of sizes. Many label manufacturers follow a certain formula when creating labels. This usually results in mass-produced product labels that all look the same— or at least very similar— across different brands within the same industry. For example, the clothing labels you might find at a retail store would be far less interesting and more generic than ones you might find in a small boutique. This is because the best product labels are the ones that break away from the cookie-cutter manufacturing trend. Selecting a set of label dimensions exclusive to your product adds to its quality and shelf appeal.
Utilizing a unique shape is one of the simplest ways to create high quality labels to attract consumer attention. In fact, many of the best label designs on the market today incorporate shapes that are exclusive to their products’ brands. By choosing a label design that showcases a striking shape, you guarantee shelf appeal for your product.
The font choice may be one of the most important features of any high quality label, but so is legibility. The beauty of the font doesn’t amount to much if the consumer can’t read it. This is especially true of label designs that sport script fonts, like cursive. During the product label design process, it’s important to find the right balance between appearance and function. Only the best high quality labels utilize a font that is stunning to look at and still legible.
One of the most important aspects of high quality label design that most people fail to recognize is adaptability. Design adaptability simply means recognition across various products within a single brand. One example of this is food or drink labels. When a food or drink comes in different flavors, the logo and graphics may be the same, but the colors and text may not be. When your product line expands, it can be very tempting for to use different labels— different shapes, sizes, etc.— for each of your products. The problem with this is that the lack of uniformity can actually hurt your brand. High quality labels are cohesive; they don only slight variations across the product line so that the brand remains recognizable.
When people hear the word “labels”, two images come to mind. The first is a thin, smooth tag, like what you would find on an article of clothing. The other is a sleek adhesive sheet you would find on a box or bottle. In either case, there is no texture to the label. This, however, doesn’t always have to be the case. In fact, some of the best high quality labels utilize some form of texture. The most popular texturized label materials include colored foil, aluminum, rough paper, plastic, and polyester.
The strength of the label is yet another underappreciated aspect of design quality. High quality labels are designed to be sturdy. Otherwise, labels that are easily scratched or torn are a poor reflection on the products themselves. For example, when you stock up your cooler with bottled drinks, you expect them to remain intact, but if you pull out a bottle to find that the label was destroyed by ice and water, it makes you question the quality of the drink. If the company cut corners on making a good label, where else did they cut corners?
Establishing the shelf appeal of any product starts with the label design. Remember, high quality labels showcase high quality products. Blue Ribbon Tag & Label produces labels of all shapes and sizes for all your business needs. For more information about the services we offer, please call our design experts at 954-922-9292.
