Packaging
Packaging that sells on the shelf and survives the printer.
Range architecture, pack design and print-ready files, built to win the shelf and clear prepress.
What it is
On a crowded shelf, the pack is the first thing people trust. We design the range, the pack and every file your printer needs: dielines, barcodes, multilingual back of pack and the display boxes that carry it into the store.
Who it’s for
For producers and brand owners with a product to launch.
- You're launching a new product or a whole range, and it needs to look like one family.
- You're moving into retail, export or a new chain, and the current pack won't hold its own next to the competition.
- You need labels in several languages, with legal information that fits and reads.
- Your printer keeps sending files back.
What’s included.
Fixed scope, fixed price, written into the proposal before we start.
- Category and shelf research, with the codes your pack has to respect to be trusted
- Range architecture: families, flavours or variants, colour and badge logic
- Pack design in two routes, developed on your real dielines
- Back of pack in every language you sell in, checked against an EU labelling checklist
- Barcodes placed and sized for scanning
- Shelf-ready display boxes and outer shipping cartons
- Prepress: CMYK, bleed, spot layers for foil or varnish, print-ready PDFs
- Presentation mockups and proof corrections with your printer or manufacturer
Five phases, with the files to show for it.
Every project moves through the same five phases. These artefacts come from the work below.
Discover
1/5
Research before anything is drawn.
Define
2/5
Positioning, routes and the brief we design to.
Design
3/5
The system, tested on real applications.
Deliver
4/5
Files, prepress, builds and handover.
Grow
5/5
Content, ads and email on the new brand.
Timeline and investment.
Typical length: 6–10 weeks for a new range; less for a single SKU or a label refresh. Printer lead times come on top.
- Discover · 1 week: Products, formats, channels, languages, printer specs and deadlines.
- Research · 1–2 weeks: The shelf you'll sit on: competitors, category codes, the claims you can and can't make.
- Routes · 2 weeks: Two pack routes on your real dielines, tested across the range.
- Range · 2–4 weeks: Every SKU, the back of pack, the display boxes and cartons.
- Print · 1–2 weeks: Prepress, proofs and corrections with the printer, then the final files.
A single SKU or a label refresh: from €2,500 + VAT (Focused). A complete range with display boxes and print files: from €5,000 + VAT (Complete). Brand, name and range together: from €10,000 + VAT (Flagship).
In the work.
18+
ISIS Grup
Nekta
2025–2026
From a range with no name to Nekta, a premium brand built to travel.
Discover — Consultancy and brief
A strategic branding and packaging proposal for an FMCG brand with international ambition, then a working session that set the practical frame: five label languages, die-cuts and the support materials the range would need.
Proposal and brief, July 2025
Discover — Preliminary research
Category dynamics from 2015 to 2025, competitor business cases from Feleacul to Nakd, the packaging rules that build trust and a claims checklist: never "no added sugar" when the recipe contains honey.
Category research, August 2025
Define — Perceptual map and two routes
We mapped the shelf on two axes, craving to health and value to premium, and found the open space between them. It became two routes: upper-mainstream "natural & energising" and premium "Mediterranean heritage".
Five clusters, one open space
Define — Naming strategy
Candidates across both routes, from ALVEA and MELIGO to NEKTA and EVIA, each with a rationale and a collision check on Google and in the OSIM/EUIPO registers for Nice classes 29, 30 and 31.
Names cleared against OSIM and EUIPO
Define — Naming validation
Qualitative interviews in two stages, in Romania and on an international campus in Amsterdam. The client confirmed the premium route between stages. NEKTA won the final stage with 60% of the vote; BeeVita was dropped for sounding too close to Belvita.
N=30 · NEKTA 60% in the final stage
Design — Wordmark and honey-drip device
A soft, rounded wordmark in which the K is built from a drop of honey, plus a drip device that runs across the range. The logo also ships as a dedicated kit for trademark registration.
Wordmark, honey drip, registration kit
Design — Pack system, display boxes, cartons
Two routes for every flavour, a window and a product photo; the photo route went to print. One colour per flavour, no more than three badges, back-of-pack copy in five languages, then shelf-ready display boxes and shipping cartons.
Pack system, display boxes and cartons
Deliver — Prepress and print
Every wrapper re-checked before print: dielines corrected and the EAN-13 codes enlarged and regenerated before the files went back to the printer.
Before/after prepress proof, October 2026
18+
Ice Lab
Ice Lab
2025–2026
Clear ice, branded on every surface it touches.
Discover — Early marks for Clear Ice Lab
An exploration board of cube icons, badges and stamps before the name was shortened to Ice Lab.
Logo exploration, July 2025
Design — A system that works in one colour
Horizontal and vertical lock-ups, a curved 'Elevate your drink' line and profile marks, ready for print, web and social.
Lock-up system, September 2025
Design — One family of bags
2.5 kg, 10 kg, cubes, XL cubes and Collins, each with its barcode and colour, prepared for print as one family.
Bag range, print file September 2025
Deliver — The box, with the manufacturer
A carton box built from a bilingual copy brief: tempering instructions, storage at −10 °C, shelf life. Inner and outer prints resolved with the manufacturer, version by version.
199×132×53 mm carton, spring 2026
Deliver — Fridges, van, print
A full-size fridge wrap and side panels, front, back and door graphics for the van, a tri-fold product flyer and business cards.
Fridge wrap, 201×73 cm
Grow — A site for professionals
icelab.ro in Romanian and English, then a full update: one clear H1, a blog index, structured data, an FAQ for answer engines and consent-based tracking.
Live in Romanian and English
18+
ISIS Grup
Zestrea Bunicii
2025–2026
A grandmother's pantry, ready for Europe's shelves.
Discover — Export-market research
EU market size and growth, five target countries, competitors from Râureni to Kühne and Spreewaldhof, and two hypotheses validated: Balkan pickles travel well, and retailers' themed weeks are a real way in.
Export-market research, September 2025
Define — Naming routes
Routes from Danubia and Brinova to ZESTRA, "what is handed down", each with pros, cons and a Google and OSIM/EUIPO check in Nice classes 29, 30 and 35.
Naming routes, cleared in three Nice classes
Design — Label system
A deep-green label with a cream cross-stitch motif and a round badge with the grandmother, whose headscarf changes colour by product. Small label, big window, as the research recommended.
Label iterations, September–October 2026
Deliver — EU label QC
A status sheet for every product: GTIN, net and drained weight, energy values, salt from sodium, QUID percentages and allergens in bold, with each page marked green, amber or red.
Every product checked against EU rules
18+
Michael's Bagel
Michael's Bagel
2025–2026
A bagel shop with two crowds, and a reason to visit for each.
Define — Continuity, two audiences
A proposal built on what already worked: weekday students who grab and go, weekend brunch for the 25-plus crowd, and benchmarks from bagel shops abroad.
Social strategy proposal, November 2025
Design — A menu in five steps
Pick the bagel, the spread, the protein, the vegetables, the sauce. The same system runs on the A4 menu, the table menu, the coffee board and a light-box strip.
Menu system, September 2026
Grow — School by school
A student discount pushed with Meta ads and a scrapbook-style post for each nearby high school, with table booking built into the ads.
Student ads and school posts
Deliver — Launches and a collab
Each new product got print and posts of its own. With Sneaker Industry the brand moved onto co-branded wrapping paper, an A1 poster and a festival giveaway.
Michael's × Sneaker Industry
18+
HORA
HORA
2025
Flour and mălai packaging that puts Romanian origin up front.
Discover — Start from what exists
The client's HORA wordmark and a photo of the current kraft bag set the baseline: keep the mark, change the shelf presence.
The existing bag
Design — Packaging rounds
The Mălai Superior bag went through successive versions, a yellow cornfield gradient with red script, before the system extended to the flour bags.
Mălai Superior, from v1 to final
Design — Lettering and origin badge
Script lettering for product names and a heart-shaped 'Produs în România' badge that works on every bag.
Lettering set and badge
Deliver — Collateral and handover
Tote bag, apron, desk calendar and notepad with the HORA mark and a folk-embroidery border, then final and editable files with a font report.
Brand materials deck
Questions.
Do you print the packaging?
We prepare the print-ready files and work with your printer or manufacturer through proofs and corrections. If you don't have a printer yet, we can recommend one. Print runs are quoted by the printer.
Who is responsible for the legal text on the pack?
By law, the producer. We lay out the information you supply, check it against an EU labelling checklist (mandatory information, allergens, nutrition, claims) and flag anything that looks wrong before it goes to print.
Can you design for export?
Yes. Nekta's back of pack runs in five languages and the Zestrea labels in seven, each laid out so the legal text fits and still reads.
Can you work with our existing dielines?
Yes, and we prefer to. Designing on the real dieline avoids surprises at the printer. If a format should change, we'll show you why.
Do we need a product shoot?
Not always. One route can carry illustration or a window onto the product; a photo route needs strong product photography. We'll tell you which one your shelf calls for.
Can you add new SKUs later?
Yes. The range architecture is built so new flavours and sizes slot in without redesigning the family.
Let’s talk about your project.
Tell us where the brand stands today and where the business is going. You’ll get a clear recommendation and a fixed price.
Prefer email? contact@fastudios.co