Everything you need to know about Packaging Artwork Management

Packaging artwork management is the process of overseeing a brand owner’s packaging designs over time. Think of it as the technical cousin of design-on-pack - always present at family dinners but not as charismatic and flamboyant as design. It's more of a strategic and practical blend of an analyst and doer. While he may not be the center of attention, he is essential for getting things done.

Why do I need it?

Imagine this: you're on a mission to revitalize a specific category in your product assortment, encompassing about 200 products. You start the process by engaging your design agency, focusing primarily on bringing out the essence of the top 10 bestsellers. After some presentations, iterations and discussions, you choose a standout design and spend a few weeks refining it.

Upon reaching the sign-off stage, you face a recurring dilemma. While you appreciate the agency for their cutting-edge and market-reaching designs, their delivery and implementation processes are messy and drawn-out. You reflect on past challenges:

• Communication Overload: An endless stream of review emails between the agency and your team, with you as the intermediary, with numerous versions of the remaining 190 artworks.
• Content Mismatches: Discrepancies in content that don't align with all package types and sizes.
• Timing Issues: Important questions that arise too late in the project timeline.
• Print Problems: Identifying print-related issues when it's too late, leaving you with putting out fires.
• Accountability Concerns: No party is willing to own up to oversights.
• Budget Strains: The staggering costs of artwork implementation, raising questions about the agency's efficiency when evaluations should consider other metrics, such as market penetration and design.
  
  

The better alternative

This is where the previously mentioned strategic and practical cousin comes in as the clear antidote to chaos. Things can be managed differently—efficiently, systematically, quickly, and without you in the middle. That's the essence of packaging artwork management.

Now, picture this: you contact your packaging artwork agency, merely cc'ing them the brief as you email it to the design agency. An adept packaging artwork partner will understand the necessary steps, execute them, and assume responsibility for both the progress and the outcome:

• They’ll invite the design agency (with whom they have a strong rapport) to a shared artwork management software. There, they’ll find existing artworks to use as a foundation, die cuts, print specifications they understand, and new content uploaded by your team.
• They offer an assortment analysis and overview, assisting the design agency in grasping the entire assortment in terms of space, sizes, and variants. They also guide you in selecting a cost-efficient group of master packaging for the agency to design, covering the whole assortment, not just the bestsellers.
• During design presentations, they address print and spatial concerns as they emerge, collaborating with you and the agency to devise innovative solutions within print constraints.
• After sign-off, they implement the remaining artworks based on jointly developed timelines and weekly schedules, allowing your team to anticipate revisions and continue their regular duties.
• If unanticipated design challenges arise, they collaborate with the agency to ensure both the designer's and your creative vision is upheld.
• Your entire team can review, annotate, and approve artworks in an easily navigable packaging artwork management system, methodically and with the capability to digitally compare revisions to verify changes. This process alone can save countless work hours.
• As the project coordinator, you maintain complete control of project progress since all information is available in the system. While there may be minor changes left to address, the majority is resolved.
• Because both print and spatial challenges are addressed upfront, artworks are quickly approved and sent to print on schedule. Your team feels confident moving onto the next challenge, knowing everything is precise and completed.
• Your packaging artwork agency will continue working on the production of the packshots required by GS1 (including delivery), proofing, addressing any issues, and approving all prepress and printer requests. They may even attend print runs if needed, and make sure your artworks and packshots are stored securely in an organized media repository. All of this occurs in one place, eliminating the need for multiple platforms.
• In the end, your packaging artwork agency will conclude the project, preserving all data for future reference, long after you've transitioned to new tasks.

This is the approach taken by Collabra, supported by our dedicated, skilled team, well-documented methodologies, and Cway, our packaging artwork management software. Our nearly 20-year history of strategic and operational artwork management, handling thousands of artworks for some of the most prominent and demanding Scandinavian brands, has established industry best practices.