Turning packaging ideas into reality

Whether you are a one person operation with a passion and an idea or a multinational brand with teams dedicated to strategising your new product launch, all benefit from tapping into the packaging industry’s rich history of development, design, and innovation.

Design helps products stand out and makes sure packaging is suited to the application. Packaging design must also consider consumer safety and the environment and ensure compliance.

Design is about more than looks. It defines packaging and a brand’s position in the market.

Design is a critical step as it acts as the bridge between function, brand, and consumer experience. While product protection remains as a central pillar for any successful pack and its design, in today’s world, packaging must appeal, drive sales, and communicate a brand’s identity and ethos.

As the heartbeat of London’s packaging design community, London Packaging Week 2025 has this critical element of the value chain well represented through its exhibitors and supporting educational programme.

Sight for sore eyes

Richmond (F30) is a creative partner to beauty and wellness brands. The framework ‘Dream, Define, Deliver’ underpins its work that turns ideas into icons. This all starts with the belief that every product carries a story within it, which is waiting to be drawn out and expressed. Taking a thoughtful and collaborative approach that is rooted in experience, Richmond guides clients through a process designed to bring clarity to vision, form to feeling, and distinction to shelf.

When Richmond dreams, it shapes early ideas into tangible concepts using CAD design and prototyping tools. In-house packaging technologists then define projects and guide clients through compatibility, compliance, and ESG considerations. Through laboratory testing, ISO accredited processes, and a deep understanding of regulatory and environmental standards, this helps sidestep pitfalls and define a solution that is as responsible as it is refined. To deliver the first production run through to ongoing supply, Richmond manages every detail to ensure products arrive exactly as they should – on time, on spec, and with no surprises. After launch, support continues around compliance, reporting, and continuity.

Sun Branding (A72) helps grow high performing brands through brilliant brand packaging. This is delivered through creative, right first time graphics, colour and print management, coupled with legal and environmental integrity.

Whether strategising, creating, extending, or refreshing a brand, end to end packaging design helps brands and their products stand out. As specialists in graphics and self-proclaimed brand guardians, Sun Branding creates and evolves brand guidelines to deliver right first time graphics that ensure integrity and minimise environmental impact. Sustainable packaging solutions are implemented wherever possible to align with future environmental legislation and deliver corporate ESG commitments. Dedicated consultants identify what technology is needed to bring packaging to life and design appropriately in order to remove costly production bottlenecks. At the same time, all product and packaging information is assured legally compliant and in line with the ever-evolving food and non food policies.

All of this is realised through the use of smart technology that delivers transparent data and optimises speed and cost to market.

London based Agence Chic (K70) is a 360 degree design agency dedicated to luxury brands. The basis of the business’s approach is using ingenious thinking to turn inspiration into innovation and authenticity into relevance.

This sees the agency craft brand strategies that blend luxury, influence, community, and inventiveness in order to ignite brand potential, spark growth and create enduring impact.

Its work includes brand identity projects for whisky brand The Glenlivet and artisan distillery Aberlour, brand experience projects for beauty brand Lancôme and drinks business Grand Marnier, and digital strategies for YSL Beauty and La Roche-Posay.

Also based in London is Zone Creations (J70), which is a multidisciplinary design and fabrication company. Specifically, Zone Creations produces luxury packaging, furniture, and display items for a wide range of markets. This all starts with brainstorming as the first stage in a six step design process. Initial concepts, mock ups, mood boards, and 3D modelling are used to give clients creative ideas to choose from and build upon. Then follows in-depth research and development, visualisation, modelling, and digital assembly, before the all important prototyping stage. This aims to cover all eventualities and ensure designs are fit-for-purpose and suited to real-world applications.

Luxury packaging for The Macallan No.6 was designed and fabricated by Zone Creations. The company’s engineering team came up with a brilliant technical design based on original concepts from French Studio, Brandimage. This uses an innovative opening technique containing a fluid sliding mechanism, while ensuring the bottle remains central in the bespoke case.

Quality design has been fundamental to Dapy (E32) and its philosophy over the last 40 years, whereby integrity and savoir-faire are engineered into every product. From transforming ideas into technical drawings and adapting those to suit manufacturing and the application, Dapy is adept at conceptualising, innovating, creating, and manufacturing packaging for spirits and wines, beauty, and other luxury goods.

Curve Packaging Group (C76) is a complete beauty packaging solutions provider. Within the group, Curve Idea handles branding and design projects. In addition to specialising in industrial design and engineering, Curve offers graphic design, package brainstorming, and brand development that tap into innovative technologies and global cultural influences.

Design and delivery

Retail Pak (G32) lists itself as a full service custom product packaging company. From concept and design, through to manufacturing and delivery, it creates packaging for spirits, wines, cosmetics, and premium cigars.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, with facilities in the US, Europe, Mexico, and southern China, the business has teams of designers and structural engineers that take the vaguest idea or simplest of sketches, or a full set of schematics and specifications, and turn ideas into polished products in as little as 45 days.

Printcare (K80) similarly employs a team of designers, structural engineers, and production artists who work hand-in-hand with clients and their agencies to bring ideas to life.

Whilst fundamentally a print and packaging business, Printcare offers a complimentary concept, design and prototyping service that has helped hundreds of customers in more than over 70 countries across seven continents create tailor made, high quality, cost effective, and sustainable packaging solutions.

All4Labels (G80) is another print and packaging business that offers extensive design capabilities for labels and packaging. This is channelled through the All4Graphics arm of the global group. This packaging design unit provides a supportive environment to foster creativity, interpret new ideas, and address technical design aspects. Artwork preparation and management, technical design, and prototyping support clients through fullscale manufacturing of labels and packaging.

Reedbut Group (C20) offers a design and sampling service that brings this capability to corrugated boxes.

As a UK based designer and manufacturer of sustainable corrugated cardboard packaging with more than 45 years of experience, Reedbut strives to continuously develop innovative, cost effective packaging solutions to satisfy evolving customer requirements. This includes designing corrugated packaging specifically around the product. Digital printing is used to create rapid and accurate samples prior to fullscale production.

All these companies rely on cutting edge technology platforms to design, visualise, and realise packaging designs.

From Hybrid Brandz (E66) is the Artflow artwork management solution and iC3D visualisation software to support consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies and brand managers around the world.

iC3D enables cartons, labels, flexibles, bottles, shrink wraps, point of sale, and in-store graphics to be rendered and visualised at unparalleled speeds. This delivers a level of packaging design versatility that allows creatives to indulge their ingenuity while delivering faster turnaround and up to 80% reduction in the design lifecycle.

Artflow enables teams to automate repetitive tasks, manage artwork versions, and ensure quality consistency across projects, making collaboration smoother and more efficient. Businesses in branding, consumer goods, and packaging can streamline complex workflows, reduce manual steps, and enhance coordination between teams and stakeholders. It is ideal for industries requiring precision and efficiency in managing artwork, content, and packaging approvals in fast-paced environments.

Esko (D92) is a global software solution company. Its mission is to provide innovative solutions and a comprehensive portfolio of tools that allow its customers to connect, automate, and accelerate the entire packaging go to market process.

For example, the Studio 3D packaging design and visualisation software elevates artwork creation while the structural design software, ArtiosCAD, allows users to create mock-ups and view designs in 3D before production.

Then there is WebCenter, a packaging and artwork management solution that enables organisations to control the quality and accuracy of packaging and label assets from a single source throughout the entire lifecycle – from briefing to print ready file. Cape Pack is Cloud based software that optimises palletisation.

R-stream (D96) is a software as a service (SaaS) model for the artwork industry. This replaces endless copy paste actions, agency revisions, and compliance risks with one seamless workflow.

In detail, R-stream is an enterprise end to end label artwork management software with integrated services, which is designed to help companies in packaged products sectors reduce costs and mitigate risks through process automation and optimisation.

With R-stream, every step of the artwork management process is seamlessly coordinated, from initial input through to final approval, archiving, and communication.

Recyda (A40) offers software for managing packaging sustainability and compliance internationally. The Recyda software allows complete control over an entire packaging portfolio, leveraging eco modulated EPR fees and ensuring adherence to international regulations such as the UK’s new RAM and EPR regulations and the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).

With just a few clicks, Recyda assesses recyclability in multiple countries, depicts large packaging portfolios, and delivers comprehensive evaluations and actionable reporting. This makes international packaging compliance straightforward, empowering companies to not only hit their sustainability targets but also achieve significant cost savings.

Get along to London Packaging Week 2025 to see these companies for yourself and witness how their services can help elevate your packaging design and management.