12 Creative Packaging Ideas for Food and Drinks in 2023
If you’re planning to launch a new food product — or you’re in the process of a rebrand — we’re here to help! We’ve rounded up some of the best packaging for food products to get your creative juices flowing.
Check out these great examples of awesome eco-friendly food packaging to help your product stand out from the crowd and succeed in highly competitive markets.
Featured: Burger King
1. A Refreshing Rebrand for Burger King
Fast food packaging relies on ease of use for quick service and convenience. While much of the innovation in this sector has already taken place — cartons for fries, greaseproof paper for burgers and paper bags for meals — we think Burger King nailed their recent rebrand. The funky, soulful lettering married with bold colours makes this packaging part of one of the most successful fast-food restaurant rebrands in recent memory.
Featured:Tipsy Macarons
2. Sophisticated eCommerce Packaging for Sweet Treats
Nothing says “classy” like this colourful, gin-infused confectionery. We think this packaging from Tipsy Macarons is a perfect match for these little delights, leaning heavily into retro influences. The brand screams sophistication with the foil blocking on the brand name to the pastel-coloured artwork, making the product instantly novel yet up-market.
Read more about how we created this packaging in our recent blog post.
Source: The Perfect Pop
3. Totally Tubular Packaging for Popcorn
From cinemas to sofas, popcorn has been an ever-popular snack with consumers for decades. Demand shows no sign of slowing down, as the gourmet popcorn market makes fantastical flavours of this low-calorie snack available — and who could resist this packaging? The Perfect Pop pulled out all the stops with a unique take on popcorn packaging, doing away with paper bags in favour of a stackable, snackable design.
Featured: White Rabbit Pizza
4. Playful Pizza Box Packaging
Standing out on the shelves in shops and supermarkets is a challenge for many brands, especially those entering competitive markets. We helped White Rabbit Pizza create packaging that made their range of pizzas, doughballs and flatbreads instantly recognisable, putting their stamp on the retail market. Plus, the cutout section on the pizza packaging helps consumers see exactly what their food looks like.
Read our case study to learn more about this awesome pizza packaging.
Featured: Good Shots
5. Colourful Shelf-Ready Packaging for Beverages
Shelf-ready packaging needs to serve several purposes. It needs to move products quickly, safely and efficiently through the supply chain and display them neatly on shelves (while also being recyclable). Good Shots certainly hit each of these targets! The corrugated packaging protects the products in transit but can easily be opened to display the bottles for sale — a win-win!
Featured: Zima Russian Restaurant
6. Artful Printed Paper Bags for Takeaways
Printed paper bags offer an opportunity to maximise brand exposure at a low cost. The world is your oyster when you have a large printing surface to play with, and this unique, artistic design for Zima is right on the money. The minimalist design of black ink on kraft paper means the paper bags can be printed cost-effectively and without over-using resources to create striking packaging.
Related: What Is Accessible Packaging?
7. Fruit Juice Delivered in Fruit Skins
Something from leftfield, now. Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa brought about this innovative range of juice packaging. Fukasawa designed a series of fruit juice packages that look — and feel — just like the fruit they contain. The series “Juice Skin” is a great example of sensory marketing and design. It’s a simple yet genius idea!
Featured: Doh
8. Super Cool Boxes for Cookie Dough
Baking at home is a hobby for many and a profession for some, but it can be messy, unsuccessful and ultimately not enjoyable — especially if you’re short on time. That’s where Doh has positioned itself perfectly in this market. The clean aesthetic and modern design for this bake-at-home cookie dough product from Doh looks as good as it tastes. The simple white boxes with the speckled design are subtle yet enticing, and the packaging is recyclable at home for added convenience.
Featured: Charm Villa
9. Goldfish Tea Bags
These novel and majestic goldfish tea bags from Taiwan have gained much attention. Charm Villa could have easily gone for the standard tea bag design, but opting for tea bags like the one in the image above has intrigued and engaged consumers. Customers get a little bit extra with their cup of tea, making the whole experience more enjoyable, memorable and shareable.
Featured: Cellar Rats
10. Extra Strong Shipping Boxes for Wine Subscription
If you’re shipping breakable items, you need the right packaging. We used printed double-wall cardboard boxes to securely help Cellar Rats ship wine bottles. This is incredibly important for the online-only brand as customer retention relies on exceptional service and reliable deliveries for every order, like many subscription-based offerings.
The direct, straightforward copy paired with the sketched artwork and simple use of red-on-kraft printing makes no-nonsense, incredibly appealing packaging.
Related: How to Create Stylish and Sustainable Custom Subscription Boxes
Featured: BOTH Burger
11. Creative 50/50 Packaging with BOTH Burger
In 2023, sustainability is on the minds of most consumers. This is where the BOTH Burger presents an interesting idea — a delicious burger patty with 50% grass-fed beef and 50% all-natural veggies. The founders of these semi-plant-based burgers were unconvinced that most meat eaters would commit to becoming vegetarians with meatless patties, so they’ve given people who are on the fence about going vegetarian or vegan a realistic way to cut their meat consumption.
We think the packaging has perfectly encapsulated the brand’s vision, with a bold split in the blue and white colourway, inviting photography of the food, and handwritten copy to make the contrast all the more inviting. The overall effect is incredible shelf appeal, making the product an enticing alternative to 100% beef or 100% veggie burgers.
Featured: Tidal Rum
12. Golden Hour with Rum Gift Set Packaging
Alcohol miniatures make great presents. As with any gift, the packaging is part of the sentiment, which is why we love the packaging for this Tidal Rum set. The bottles are an innovative dome shape and are corked instead of sealed with a plastic cap, adding a hint of quality where it matters.
The labelling is simple and colourful, letting the contents of each miniature bottle do most of the talking. For the box, a teal base with yellow-lined detailing looks like a topographic map of some far-off island where the sunsets last forever — lovely!
Like these exciting design ideas? Get in touch for a free packaging design quote, and let us help you create unique packaging for your products.
