Packaging Design & Artwork Services

What We Offer

Most packaging problems start with artwork. Files that look fine on screen but won’t print correctly. Colours that shift when converted for flexographic printing. Designs that don’t account for seal areas, registration tolerances, or substrate behaviour. We’ve seen it all - and we fix it before it costs you money.

Our design service isn’t about winning creative awards. It’s about getting your packaging printed correctly, on time, without expensive mistakes. We bridge the gap between what your designer creates and what actually works on a printing press.

Artwork Technical Support

Every print order includes a technical artwork review at no extra charge. We check your files before they go to print and flag any issues that could cause problems.

We look for common file issues that cause production problems: images below 300 DPI resolution, missing or insufficient bleed, fonts not converted to outlines, and incorrect file formats. We also check structural accuracy including cutter guide orientation, seal area allowances, safe zones for critical text, and registration mark placement.

For food packaging, we review regulatory elements: allergen declarations properly emphasised, mandatory information present and legible, nutritional panel formatting, and business address requirements (mandatory since January 2024).

If we find issues, we’ll either fix them (simple corrections) or send you a clear list of what needs changing. Either way, you know before production starts - not when boxes of unusable packaging arrive.

File Preparation

If your designs need preparing for print, we coordinate the technical work through our repro house partners. They handle the specialist prepress tasks: setting up correct bleeds and trim marks, optimising images for flexographic reproduction, creating proper trapping, and preparing step-and-repeat layouts for printing cylinders.

We act as the bridge between your designer and the technical prepress process - making sure requirements are communicated clearly and the finished artwork matches your original design intent.

Colour Management

Colour consistency is one of the biggest challenges in flexible packaging. What you see on your monitor won’t look the same when printed on BOPP film or metallised substrate.

If you’re matching existing packaging or brand colours, send us samples. Physical references are far more reliable than screen colours that vary between devices.

Mockups and Prototypes

Before committing to a full production run, you can see your design on actual packaging material. Our mockup service produces physical samples - typically within 5-7 working days - that you can hold, fill, photograph, and present to stakeholders.

Mockups are particularly valuable when you’re launching a new product and need samples for photography and marketing, presenting to retailers who want to see the actual pack, testing how your design looks on the shelf, or checking that colours and finishes work as expected on your chosen material.

We can produce mockups on the same substrate as your production run - BOPP, CPP, laminates, or whatever material your product requires. This means the sample accurately represents how the finished packaging will look and feel.

Design Development

If you don’t have finished artwork, we can help develop your packaging design from whatever starting point you have.

For brands with established guidelines, we apply your existing brand elements - logos, colours, typography - to packaging formats. We ensure consistency with your other marketing materials while adapting designs for the specific requirements of flexible packaging.

For new products or brands, we can develop designs from rough concepts, competitor examples, or even just a verbal brief. We’re not a brand agency, but we understand what works on packaging and can create effective designs that print well and present your product clearly.

The level of design input is flexible. Some customers come with complete artwork that just needs technical preparation. Others need us to create everything from scratch. Most fall somewhere in between - a logo and some ideas that need developing into finished packaging artwork.

Food Labelling Support

UK food labelling regulations are detailed and the penalties for getting them wrong are significant. We check packaging artwork against current requirements and flag potential compliance issues.

Mandatory information requirements include food name, ingredients list with allergens emphasised, net quantity, date marking, storage instructions, business name and UK address, country of origin where required, and nutritional information in the correct format.

We’re not food law specialists, but we know what a compliant food label looks like. We’ll catch obvious errors - missing allergen emphasis, font sizes below minimum requirements, incomplete mandatory information - before they become expensive production mistakes or worse, regulatory issues.

For complex labelling questions, we can point you toward specialist food labelling consultants. But for straightforward compliance checking, our review catches most common errors.

Working With Designers

If you work with a design agency or freelance designer, we can work directly with them on the technical aspects. Many graphic designers create beautiful work but don’t have specific experience with flexible packaging production.

We can provide dieline templates for your designer to work with, technical specifications for file setup, guidance on what’s achievable in flexographic print, and feedback on designs before they’re finalised.

This collaboration typically saves time and reduces rounds of amendments. Your designer focuses on the creative work while we handle the production technicalities.

What It Costs

Basic artwork support is absorbed into the cost of plates and print setup. We want your packaging to print correctly - it’s in both our interests.

For more substantial design work - creating artwork from scratch or complex projects - we’ll quote based on the scope. We’re transparent about costs and will tell you upfront if something falls outside what’s included.

Common Issues We Fix

Over four decades in flexible packaging, we’ve seen most artwork problems. The common ones include images that look fine on screen but are too low resolution for print, artwork without bleed that can’t be trimmed accurately, fonts that substitute when files are opened on different systems, cutter guides drawn from the wrong view causing inside/outside confusion, and gradients that look smooth on screen but show visible banding when printed - flexo has limits on how gradually tones can transition, especially over longer distances or into dark colours.

These issues aren’t failures of design skill - they’re gaps in packaging-specific knowledge. Most graphic designers work primarily in digital or litho print where the requirements differ. We bridge that gap.

Getting Started

If you have artwork ready to go, send it over and we’ll let you know if anything needs attention before print. If you’re earlier in the process and need help developing a design, get in touch and we’ll talk through the options.