Dog food packaging design

The process I went through to design the packaging for a fortified & healthy dog food brand

Small FYI

I usually work as a senior retention designer, so I focus mainly on our app and digital services. Since I have a background in graphics and branding, and I knew that the commerce team needed help, I offered to jump onto this project. I love that I get to still flex my graphic design muscle, even when working in product.

Background:

felmo has been working on developing different pillars in the business, which includes creating our own brand of pet food. Together with the expertise of our veterinarians, we created an all-rounder healthy food that is packed with vitamins, vegetables, and high protein.

Project:

In order to get on the market ASAP, I was asked to create a packaging sticker that screams “premium” and “healthy” food. I was given a tight deadline of one week, and now I’d like to run through my process.

Day one: competitor analysis

What do competitors do?

There is something SO satisfying about seeing a collage of competitor designs – I absolutely love this step in the design process!

To begin, I opened a miro board and dumped any German dog-food brand that caught my eye. I stayed mostly in the German market since we will be only selling in Germany right now.

Once I collected the visuals and some notes, I also noted down some common things that I noticed across the labels (for example, the percentage of protein).

Take-aways:

Cheaper brands use realistic photos of animals, vs. ‘exclusive’ brands use more illustration
Differentiate flavors by color
Many focus on the protein, especially if it is a high protein food.
Many show a plate or collage of the ingredients.

Day two: sketches and first iteration

Sketching the vision

After a good nights sleep and a biiiiiig cup of coffee, I grabbed my ipad and pen and sketched some ideas that I had. When I personally shop for cat food, I look for food which is either chicken or salmon. Because of this, I assumed that most people care more about the protein than anything else… so I made some sketches with this in mind.

Since we are a vet, I wanted to make sure the message that it is “approved by vets” is prominent, so I sketched a badge on the top.

I then took the design into figma. Normally I would design these labels in either illustrator or indesign, but since I had a lot of elements already in figma (since I designed the landing page for the food already and wanted to reuse icons and text), I figured it would be easier to create drafts and mockups here.

At this point, my coworkers liked both of the visual directions (line drawing vs. photo of a dog eating it), but something felt off. I kept trying different design iterations.

Day three: tangible mockups and a new direction

Touch and feel

The next day, I came into the office and printed off a design to see it in full. While it was on the wall, we had the “AHA” moment and realized that we should NOT focus on protein, but rather on the benefit of the product.

I realized that I have a bias that I didn’t notice at the beginning: I have a picky cat who ONLY eats salmon flavored wet-food… so for ME, protein is extremely important. I then asked a bunch of dog-owners that I know if protein type is important, or what is it that they look for in a food.

The answer: protein doesn’t really matter… but quality and benefits are important.

At this point, I changed the name/focus from the protein and rather focused on the fact that it is an ‘all-in-one’ food. I printed this version again, and asked for feedback around the office.

Everyone loved the message and the overall feeling of the design. I opted for the ‘line-drawing’ instead of the photo of the dog eating to make sure our food looks premium, since it will be more expensive.

I loved this dog drawing that I did, but unfortunately, a lot of people do not recognise it as a dog. Even one of our cofounders asked why there’s an elephant on the cover! After a few more line drawings and trying out different dog positions, I finally created one that everyone is happy with.

The final product:

Great for now!

I’m really happy with how this turned out. I brought the design into inDesign in order to ensure the file was set up properly for a printer. If I had to do anything different in the process, it would be to spend a little bit more time on research and messaging at the beginning. However, this came together fast and without any major hiccups!