Below is a screenshot of my InDesign “close to finished” design. I switched out the second pouch bag for a different product all together: a cold brew in a can. I already had coffee in a bag and thought I needed a different package design all together. I kept the continuity by adding respective illustrations to the packaging. I also added little connected counterpart like coffee grounds, tea bags, ice cubes and a honey dipper.

I have embossed the logo and the “sword” icon and debossed the “V” that represents the sword’s blade tip.

I liked some examples I saw and ended up turning this page into an outright advertisement of sorts. All the copy is my own original device to explain a little bit about the coffee brand. I am very happy with the results!

Once I was happy with my High-End packaging — which I started first on purpose because I knew the design would take more time due to it being fancier than the low-end line — I started on my Low-End product packaging.

An interesting development happened when I tried to match the 11×8.5 inch page size in Photoshop. My original mockup arrangement for my low-end line was around 45 inches wide. I knew that was a problem. The resolution was great, but it was too big, taking up too much RAM and space on my computer, plus it was overkill. I honestly don’t know how the file was so big. Maybe the mockup I opened was that size and I didn’t notice. Anyway, the mockups were too large, so when I tried to descale them right there in photoshop (I cropped the page to 11×8.5 down from the 45 and so inches) the resolution suffered. I don’t know if it was due to Photoshop trying to catch up the the demands I was asking it or what.

I had to think. I couldn’t do the entire page in Photoshop. It would look bad. So, I thought maybe I could start in InDesign with the 11×8.5 page and import the mockups once I was done with them. So that’s what I did for this one. I imported each mockup individually and arranged them into InDesign first. Then I went back and worked on each mockup in Photoshop as they are now linked into InDesign. For this page I have to work first in Photoshop, save, update the image link in InDesign and so forth. I don’t mind this method but I can see its advantages over working with a massive PSD file with multiple mockups in it.

For my low end design I consulted my pantry at home and also Googled Great Value brand online. Great Value has a very uniform look and it quite plain. I knew that the cereal box would have a circle with the bowl of cereal in it. I just pictured that thinking it looked like the orb of the sun rising on the horizon (Sunshine Farms). Then I got the idea to add an image of a natural element associated with “Bran Flakes.” I used the cereal box as my template for the rest of the products: a circle showing the product and the background being something natural. Also a box with the item description. It’s looking a little more than low-end but that’s okay because some low-end brands really invest in the design of their packaging.