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5 Product Label Design Tips to Elevate Your Packaging

Coming up with the perfect label design is a challenge in itself. When it comes to designing a product label, there are things to consider that, perhaps, not just any designer can do. Let’s break down a five notable design tips that can help you take your packaging to the next level.

Product Label Design Should Be Honest

A colorful product label design for Hotel Tango vodka.

Any designer might default to trying to depict a product in its most desirable and flawless state, but an experienced product label designer knows that it’s essential to honestly represent a product. Your design is supposed to tell your product’s story, not fabricate a misleading fable.

The imagery and messaging on your label should be, to the best of your ability, an accurate representation of what consumers will find inside of the packaging. This need for honesty is especially true when design food labels or any other products people will consume or use for their body. You know your product best, so make sure your design properly represents what you sell and how it should make customers feel.

If you still think this a little deception is fine, just consider what can happen. Even if your label gets someone to buy your product once, that individual will quickly snuff out that your packaging design wasn’t quite so honest about its contents. That one-and-done customer won’t be giving you any more money. What’s worse is that a slighted consumer may tell others that your product is misleading.

That scenario represents quite an unfortunate spiral thanks to a misleading packaging label design. That’s why we suggest being as transparent with your packaging design – and we’re talking about more than just clear labels. You make a good product, so make sure your packaging properly represents your work.

Product Label Design Must Take Legalities into Account

It’s okay to push boundaries with your design, but your label must follow any applicable federal or state regulations. Several products are regulated by various government entities, so there’s a good chance some organization will have a say in what you include in your design.

For example, the Alcoholic Beverage Labeling Act requires that alcoholic beverages carry a government warning, among other things, telling pregnant women of the effects of drinking, and regular consumers of the health risks. The penalties for violating this act can be a fine in the tens of thousands of dollars. As such, you’ll want you brush up on your Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) regulations to make sure your design is up to date with legal standards.

Beer is far from the only product that needs to incorporate legal guidelines into its packaging label design. Wine labels, spirit labels, food labels, health and beauty labels, and so many more all carry some sort of legal requirement to communicate ingredients, warnings, or risks with consumers.

Your Product’s Design Has to Fly Off Shelves

There’s always competition. Regardless of which product is being designed for, it must exist on a shelf, in an online store, or somewhere else with all of its rivals. That’s no small task while still staying true to the product, the brand, and labeling regulations. Still there are ways that your design can keep a unique quality that differentiates it from its shelf-neighbors.

Use different font types to evoke specific emotions and quickly portray your product and brand’s personality.
90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual, so incorporate imagery to your product label design can help it get noticed.
Utilize color psychology and contrasts to develop a striking color palette that evokes certain moods and feelings and competitively positions your product in a visual market.
Enhance your design in cool, creative ways with embossing, hot foil stamping, and other label decorations that turn your product into a visual spectacle.
Build in white space to embrace minimalism or space out certain aspects of your design to make them more legible.

Those are just some of the ways that you can amp up your label design, and there are so many opportunities to outshine your competitors. Need some inspiration? Check out some of our favorite examples of outstanding labels here.

Product Packaging Should be Extensible

A good product label design shouldn’t focus on the present alone. It’s important to keep your label design open to variation for future product extensions as well. No matter your industry, your design should be flexible enough to accommodate expansion into several subsets if that’s a possibility in the future.

One way to prepare for multiple SKUs is to create a templated design. This approach will help you maintain an instantly recognizable identity while giving you to adapt specific details for individual products. You’ll also need to account for one of the least flashy elements of a label – the barcode. Barcodes and UPCs are important for any product, but you’ll need to keep track of each UPC to avoid duplication of numbers for different SKUs.

Product Label Design Must Speak to Digital Printing Machinery

Digital label printing equipment for printing product label designs.

A great custom label design is just the first step toward stellar packaging. Somebody needs to take that design and turn it into a real, eye-catching product label. That’s where the right label printing company comes into play.

At Blue Label, we use state-of-the-art digital printing technology to make the most out of your design. We can combine the quality, scalability, and cost-savings of digital printing with flexographic finishing capabilities to help you enhance your product label design so that you can attract attention. Our experts work directly with you to identify new opportunities and address potential issues throughout the process so that you invest in the best, most cost-effective labels for your company.

Ready for a design and printing process that can’t be beat? No matter the size or budget of your project, we can make the process work for you. Browse our directory of Blue Label Approved Label Designers to find the perfect professional designer for you. Already have a design ready? Contact us when it’s time to work on your next label project.

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How to Get a Barcode, UPC, and QR Code for a Product Label

⚞ The Highlights:

A UPC is the unique number that identifies your product. The barcode is the scannable image of that number. A QR code is a separate 2D code, usually for marketing.
The official way to get a UPC is to license a company prefix from GS1, the global standards body that issues them. Major retailers and Amazon Brand Registry expect GS1 barcodes.
Reseller barcodes are cheaper and have no annual fee, but they aren’t registered to your brand and can be rejected by big retailers. They fit some situations and not others.
QR codes are free to generate. Static ones are fixed forever; dynamic ones can be edited and tracked, but need a service to host them.
Getting the number is the easy part. The detail that trips brands up is printing a barcode that actually scans, which comes down to size, quiet zones, color, and finish.

Getting a barcode for your product comes down to three separate things: a UPC (the unique number that identifies your product), the barcode (the scannable image of that number), and, if you want one, a QR code for marketing. You get the UPC by licensing a company prefix from GS1, the barcode image comes with it, and QR codes you can generate for free. The part most brands underestimate is the last step, making sure the printed barcode actually scans.

We print labels with barcodes and QR codes on them every day, so we see both ends of this: getting the codes, and getting them to scan on a real label. Here’s how to do both. One note: barcode pricing and platform rules change, so treat the numbers below as a starting point and confirm current details with GS1 or the retailer you’re selling into.

UPC, barcode, QR code: what’s the difference?

These three terms get used interchangeably, but they’re different things. Sorting them out first makes the rest of the process a lot clearer.

	UPC	Barcode	QR code
What it is	A unique 12-digit product number	The scannable image of a number like a UPC	A 2D square code that holds more data
Format	Numbers only	1D lines and spaces	2D grid of squares
Main use	Identifying a product at retail	Checkout and inventory scanning	Linking to a website, promo, or info
Where you get it	GS1 (or a reseller)	Comes with your UPC license	Free online generator

What is a UPC?

A UPC (Universal Product Code) is the 12-digit number that uniquely identifies a specific product. Every version of a product, each size, flavor, or color, gets its own UPC. It’s what a retailer’s system reads to pull up the right item and price at checkout.

What is a barcode?

A barcode is the machine-readable image, the pattern of black bars and white spaces, that encodes a number like a UPC. When people say they “need a barcode,” they usually mean they need both the UPC number and the printed image of it. The most common retail barcode in the U.S. is UPC-A.

What is a QR code?

A QR code is a two-dimensional code, a grid of small squares, that can hold much more information than a barcode, up to thousands of characters. Instead of identifying a product at checkout, QR codes usually send a shopper somewhere: a website, a promotion, a how-to video, or product details. They’re a marketing tool, not a retail requirement.

Product labels with UPC barcodes.

How do you get a UPC barcode?

The official route is GS1, but it isn’t the only route, and which one is right depends on where you’re selling. Here’s how to decide.

Get it from GS1 (the official route)

GS1 is the global nonprofit that manages the UPC system. You license a GS1 Company Prefix, which becomes the front portion of every UPC you create. You then assign the rest of the digits to your individual products, and the system calculates a final check digit to complete each 12-digit code. Because the prefix is registered to your business in the GS1 database, retailers can verify that the code genuinely belongs to you. You can get started at GS1 US.

How much does a GS1 barcode cost?

GS1 pricing depends on how many barcodes you need. A single GTIN (one barcode) is a one-time $30 with no annual renewal. A GS1 Company Prefix, which makes sense once you need several codes, starts at $250 up front plus a $50 annual renewal for up to 10 products, and scales from there (100 products runs $750 up front plus $150 a year). GS1 updates its pricing periodically, so check their site for the current numbers before you budget.

GS1 vs. reseller barcodes: which should you use?

You’ll also find companies selling individual barcodes for a few dollars with no annual fee. These are usually numbers from older GS1 prefixes issued before 2002, resold to many buyers. They can work, but there are real trade-offs.

	GS1 barcode	Reseller barcode
Cost	Higher, with an annual fee	Low, usually one-time
Registered to your brand	Yes, in the GS1 database	No, shows the original prefix owner
Major retailer acceptance	Widely accepted	Often rejected by large chains
Amazon Brand Registry	Required	Not accepted
Best for	Brands headed to retail or Amazon at scale	Small runs, internal use, some online marketplaces

Do you even need a barcode?

Maybe not yet. If you’re selling direct from your own website or at a market, you can hold off on a barcode for now. You need one once you sell through retailers or distributors that scan products, and most major chains (and Amazon Brand Registry) specifically want GS1-registered codes. If retail is the plan, going straight to GS1 saves you from re-labeling later.

A breakdown of UPC numbers and how to get a barcode.

Ready to put a barcode on your label?

We print product labels with barcodes and QR codes that scan the first time. Send us your code and artwork, and we’ll make sure it’s sized, spaced, and printed to scan cleanly.
Request a Quote Get a Sample Pack

How do you get the barcode image?

Once you have your UPC number, you need the printable barcode image to put on your label.

From the GS1 Data Hub

When you license a prefix and create your product codes, GS1 provides tools (the GS1 US Data Hub) to generate the barcode images that match your numbers. You can download those images and hand them to your designer or printer. If you bought a reseller code, the seller typically provides the barcode image file too.

Barcode types you might run into

UPC-A. The standard 12-digit retail barcode in the U.S. and Canada. This is what most products use.
EAN-13. The 13-digit international equivalent, common outside North America.
UPC-E. A compressed 8-digit version for very small packages where a full UPC-A won’t fit.
Code 128. A denser barcode used more for shipping, cases, and internal tracking than for retail checkout.

How do you get a QR code?

QR codes are the easy one. You don’t register them with anyone. A free online QR code generator turns a link or text into a downloadable QR image in seconds. The choice worth thinking about is static versus dynamic.

Static vs. dynamic QR codes

A static QR code is fixed. The link is baked in and can’t be changed once it’s printed, and it’s free forever. A dynamic QR code points to a short redirect you control, so you can change the destination later and track scans, but it usually requires a paid service to host and manage. If the QR code sends people to a page you might update, or you want scan data, dynamic is worth it. For a link that will never change, static is fine.

What to put behind a QR code

The best QR codes give the shopper a reason to scan: a how-to video, your brand story, a recipe, loyalty signup, lab results, or a promotion. A QR code that just opens your homepage rarely gets used. Give it a clear payoff and a short label telling people what they’ll get.

How to prepare barcodes and QR codes for your label

This is the step that gets skipped, and it’s the one we spend the most time on with customers. A barcode that looks fine on screen can still fail at the register if it’s printed too small, too tight to other elements, in the wrong colors, or on the wrong finish. Here’s how to avoid a code that won’t scan.

Why do barcodes fail to scan?

A barcode fails when the scanner can’t cleanly read the contrast between bars and spaces. That usually comes from one of four things: the code is too small, there isn’t enough blank space around it, the colors don’t contrast enough, or a shiny finish or curve is bouncing the scanner’s light. Each one is preventable if you catch it before the run.

Size and quiet zones

A UPC-A barcode has a nominal size (roughly 1.5 inches wide by 1 inch tall) and can be scaled within a range, commonly about 80% to 200% of nominal. Go too small and the bars blur together. Just as important is the quiet zone, the blank margin on each side of the barcode. UPC barcodes need a clear margin (a rough rule of thumb is at least an eighth of an inch, or the width of about ten bars, on each end). Crowd the barcode with other artwork and the scanner loses the edges.

Color and contrast rules

Dark bars, light background. Black bars on a white background is the safest choice. High contrast is what the scanner reads.
Avoid red and warm tones for the bars. Many scanners use red light, which can’t “see” red, orange, or similar warm-colored bars. They can read as blank.
Skip busy or dark backgrounds behind the code. A patterned or dark background kills the contrast the scanner needs.

Material and finish gotchas

The label itself can defeat a good barcode. Highly reflective finishes, like a glossy laminate or a metallic or foil material directly under the code, can bounce a scanner’s light and cause misreads. Clear labels can leave a barcode without the light background it needs. And on tightly curved containers or across a shrink-sleeve seam, a barcode can distort enough to fail. The safe move is to give the barcode a flat, matte, light area to live on.

Always verify before the full run

Before you print thousands of labels, confirm the barcode scans on the actual material and finish, not just on screen. A quick scan test (or a formal barcode verification) on a proof catches problems while they’re cheap to fix. This is exactly the kind of thing we check on a proof so a scanning issue never reaches your full run.

Pro tip: Give your printer the vector barcode file (or the exact number and barcode type, like UPC-A), not a low-resolution screenshot. A barcode pulled from a fuzzy image or resized as a photo can lose the crisp edges scanners depend on. Clean vector art scales and prints reliably.

Getting your codes onto a label that scans

The path is straightforward: license a UPC from GS1 (or decide a reseller code fits your situation), download the barcode image, generate a QR code if you want one, then, most importantly, print them so they scan. That last step is where a printer who knows barcodes earns their keep.

That’s the part we handle for brands every day. Send us your barcode and QR files with your artwork and we’ll size, space, and print them to scan cleanly on your material. Request a sample pack to see our materials and finishes, or get in touch and we’ll help you get your labels print-ready.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a UPC, a barcode, and a QR code?

A UPC is the unique 12-digit number that identifies a product. A barcode is the scannable image of that number, the pattern of bars and spaces read at checkout. A QR code is a separate two-dimensional code that holds much more data and is usually used for marketing, like linking to a website or promotion, rather than retail checkout.

How do you get a UPC barcode for a product?

The official way is to license a GS1 Company Prefix from GS1, the global body that manages the UPC system. The prefix becomes the front of every UPC you create, you assign the remaining digits to each product, and GS1 provides the matching barcode images through its Data Hub. Because the prefix is registered to your business, retailers can verify the code belongs to you.

How much does a barcode cost?

Through GS1, a single barcode (GTIN) is a one-time $30 with no annual renewal. A GS1 Company Prefix covering up to 10 products is $250 up front plus a $50 annual renewal, and larger tiers scale from there (100 products is $750 plus $150 a year). Reseller barcodes cost only a few dollars with no annual fee, but they aren’t registered to your brand. GS1 pricing changes, so confirm current rates on their site.

Should I buy a GS1 barcode or a reseller barcode?

Use GS1 if you’re selling through major retailers or Amazon Brand Registry, which require GS1-registered codes. Reseller barcodes are cheaper and have no annual fee, but they aren’t registered to your brand and are often rejected by large chains. They can work for small runs, internal use, or some online marketplaces.

How do you get a QR code for a product?

QR codes are free to generate. A QR code generator turns a link or text into a downloadable image, with no registration needed. A static QR code is fixed and free forever; a dynamic QR code can be edited and tracked later but usually requires a paid service. Give the code a clear payoff, like a video or promotion, so people have a reason to scan.

Why does my barcode fail to scan?

Barcodes usually fail because they’re printed too small, lack enough blank quiet-zone space around them, use low-contrast colors (dark bars on a light background scan best, and red bars often fail), or sit on a reflective or curved surface. Keeping the barcode at an adequate size with clear margins, high contrast, and a flat matte light area fixes most scanning problems.

What size does a UPC barcode need to be?

A UPC-A barcode has a nominal size of roughly 1.5 inches wide by 1 inch tall and can typically be scaled between about 80% and 200% of nominal. It also needs a quiet zone, a clear margin on each side, of roughly an eighth of an inch. Shrinking it below the minimum or crowding it with artwork can cause scan failures.

Ready to print a label that scans?

Once you have your UPC, barcode image, and any QR code, we’ll get them onto a label that scans cleanly the first time. Request a sample pack to see our materials, or get in touch and send us your files.

More on barcodes, QR codes, and print-ready labels: