Healthy food is a product that requires trust from its consumers. One way to create trust is by showing your commitment through sustainable design for packaging. Using sustainable packaging for healthy food will send a message to your customers: that you implement good values in your whole brand.
Sustainable packaging can improve branding, and incredibly healthy food business, because of the “shared values”. Sustainability and healthy food can go hand-in-hand, especially if you promote organic food or products with sustainable ingredients.
Sustainable design supports branding efforts by emphasizing your brand philosophy and value. In turn, they will attract customers who share the same values. Your brand reputation will increase, and you can gather a loyal customer base.
Sustainable packaging, in general, refers to any packaging made of easily recycled or compostable materials. It can also mean recycled materials, which show the business’s commitment to reducing waste.
You can use packaging made of sustainable materials; many of them are plant-based. Bamboo, molded pulp, sugarcane fiber, and wood are popular options. The use of mushroom mycelium for boxes, primary packaging, or fillers is also growing.
Sustainable packaging design may also eschew useless features. Such packaging often has simple boxes, bags, or containers that can be easily recycled or composted. For example, you can see it in products that skip inner plastic packaging.
Brands that cannot ditch plastic may commit to reducing plastic waste during production. You may see it in bottles of shower gel or shampoo that are made of recycled plastic.
Creating a sustainable brand is not just about the materials for packaging. You need to balance the visual aspect and brand identity with sustainable materials.
Here are some good examples of sustainable design ideas for packaging that you can utilize:
Alter Eco is a California-based chocolate truffle company that uses compostable wrappers for their products. They also use organic materials like birch and eucalyptus husks for boxes and pouches, with corn paper as their inner layer.
Alter Eco’s packaging design also emphasizes its “sustainable” branding. You can see botanica design in every packaging, with words like “organic” or “pure coconut oil” being their catching point.
Kencko sells itself as a practical, healthy beverage: smoothie in powder form. The company matches its health branding with a commitment to organic packaging. Kencko Power comes in a long wrapper made of compostable material with a no-nonsense design.
Kencko also uses sustainable materials for its boxes, such as sugarcane fiber and recycled cardboard. The smoothie packs have a minimalist design with text, creating a sense of transparency that assures the customers.
Numi Tea promotes not only its sustainable tea leaves but also its packaging. Its sustainable designs can be seen in its compostable tea boxes and wrappers. The boxes also emphasize the brand’s personality as a sustainable one, such as the showcasing of the ingredients and the “plant-based tea wrapper” logo.
Alara Wholefoods produces healthy food like organic muesli, granola, and cereal. Their packaging designs utilize compostable materials like tree cellulose. Their image as a sustainable brand can be seen from their simple boxes that showcase the ingredients. Simple boxes also mean reduced waste once you finish the content.
Island Bakery is a Scotland-based organic bakery company that showcases its values in sustainable design. Their biscuits and treats are packed in eco-friendly cardboard paper and tin cans. The tin cans and simple, slightly textured cardboard paper create a sustainable theme that reflects their business principles.
Loving Earth is an example of modern sustainable packaging design. Their chocolate bars are wrapped in compostable film. Their visuals also reflect the typical organic food brand: simple designs that use color blocking and cocoa bean illustrations to depict their flavors.
Despite the bold colors and simple design, Loving Earth uses Sans Serif texts to emphasize their “seriousness” in keeping their sustainability commitment.
You can take your inspiration from these healthy food brands to create sustainable packaging. Don’t forget to create visual concepts that reflect your brand value, from the images to the color palette and font.
We at Zarma Type can help you design custom fonts to match your sustainable design. Or, choose between fonts in our shop and start your journey to sustainable business!
