Packaging and label design: how it works and what it costs

What does packaging and label design cost?

Anything from the price of lunch to a few thousand euros. The gap comes from what you get: a layout with your name on it, or a pack designed to sell from a shelf. Here's what published prices in Czechia, Slovakia and on international platforms looked like in October 2026.

Verdict: a cheap label is fine for a test batch or a farmers' market. Once a product goes into shops, it competes with designed packs, and it needs one too.

What are you paying for?

Mostly for decisions you can't see on the finished pack. A studio price usually covers:

• A shelf check. What sits next to you, and what a customer sees from two metres away.
• Concepts on the real shape. We mock two directions on your actual cup, can, bottle, pouch or box. A label that works flat can fail on a curve.
• A system. One layout that flexes across flavours, sizes and languages, so variant five doesn't need a redesign.
• Room for the rules. Ingredients, barcode and mandatory text planned from the first sketch, not squeezed in at the end.
• Print-ready files. Dielines, colour profiles and finishes set up to your printer's specs.
• Web assets. Packshots and mockups for your shop and social.

With us, that also means two revision rounds per output, a fixed price agreed up front (half on signing, half on delivery), and you own every file on delivery. Printing is billed by your printer.

How does a packaging project run?

Ours takes about 4 to 5 weeks for one product line:

1. Call and brief · week 0. You show us the product, the shelf and the competition.
2. Fixed quote · within about 3 working days.
3. Two directions · weeks 1 to 2, mocked on the real shape.
4. Final design across the range · weeks 2 to 4.
5. Print files and a printer proof · weeks 4 to 5.

AI helps us put every direction on realistic mockups fast, check that text fits in every language and prepare a variant for each flavour. We do the concept, the type, the colour and every detail you'll hold in your hand. Packaging gets judged in real light, so we check printed proofs, not just screens.

What must a food or drink label show?

More than most first drafts leave room for. On prepacked food sold in the EU, the label must carry the name of the food, the ingredients with any additives, allergens, the quantity of certain ingredients, a best before or use by date, the net quantity, storage conditions or instructions where needed, the name and address of the business, the country of origin where required, alcohol strength above 1.2%, and a nutrition declaration (Your Europe, checked July 2026).

Three rules shape the design most:

• Minimum text size. Mandatory text needs an x-height of at least 1.2 mm, or 0.9 mm if the pack's largest surface is under 80 cm².
• Allergens stand out. They're emphasised in the ingredients list with a different font, size or background colour.
• Language. Food information must be in a language easily understood where the food is sold (European Commission). Sell in Czechia and Slovakia, and you plan room for both from day one.

Wine has its own rules. EU wine labels now give ingredients and nutrition values. Most of it can sit behind a QR code, but the energy value and allergens stay on the bottle itself (Vinetur, May 2026). The rules changed again in March 2026 (Eurofins, March 2026), so check the current wording before you print.

We design the label around all of this. The legal text itself is yours to approve, ideally with your food safety advisor or lab.

How do you design one pack for many flavours and languages?

Decide what stays fixed and what changes. The logo, the grid and the type stay. Colour, flavour name and imagery change. Get that split right and each new variant is a fill-in, not a redesign.

Two examples from our work:

• maho matcha. One confident green and a deep blue carry the whole range. The everyday packs stay quiet. Specials, like the Valentine's box, get their own voice through calligraphy patterns. The range can grow without the shelf turning into noise.
• Melted. The wordmark drips, and it comes in two lengths. Shortened to "mltd", it still works on a paper wrapper the size of a hand. One mark covers the cup, the wrapper and a billboard.

Languages work the same way. Leave room for the longest language in the most crowded panel, then fit the others into it. Czech and Slovak text side by side needs that space planned, not found.

The system is also where the money goes further. Look at the small-studio row above: €180 for the first label, €110 for each one after it. A template makes every later variant cheaper.

What pushes the price up?

• More shapes and sizes. Each needs its own dieline and its own checks.
• More variants. Cheaper each, with a system. Still not free.
• A brand that needs work first. If the logo doesn't hold up at 2 cm, fix it before the pack. A brand refresh starts at €3,500, a new identity at €7,500.
• Illustration or lettering. A hand-drawn wordmark, like maho matcha's, takes longer than a typeset one.
• Special finishes. Foil, embossing and spot varnish need extra files and proofs.
• Several languages. More text in the same space, more checks.

What we'd do

If you're testing a product at markets, use your printer's template and keep the money. Once it goes into shops, design a system: start with your best seller and plan the next three variants at the same time. It costs less than designing them one by one later.

If your logo doesn't work small, fix the brand first. See our packaging and brand design services, or the work for maho matcha and Melted.