Post Date: February 23, 2023

More Packaging is Going Black

When designing a line of products or brands, one strategy is to look for a single color around which to build a visual architectural block. This key design feature helps a brand stand out from the competition as well as on the shelf. Block colors are often neutral in tone – think creams, blues, and, in some cases, white and black are used. These colors are favored by marketing and design teams for their flexibility and endurance in the marketplace.

Looking across the snack food shelves of digital and storefront marketplaces, there’s a large increase in predominantly white and black-colored packs across categories. Driven by an increasing awareness of design sophistication among American consumers over the past five years, the message sent by white packaging has shifted. Formerly considered a private label color, or a color used to denote “low in” or “free from” something, or used to denote value to the consumer, the color white on a product package now communicates a starkly different message: simple, clean and modern. White pops from the shelf or cold case and gives a great platform to demonstrate the appetite appeal in a natural way.

In today’s brand packaging environment, however, white is a visual architectural block used by so many products and brands, the color is quickly losing its ability to be distinctive in its own right.

The Appeal of Black Packaging

Black, on the other hand, has always had a place in other aisles of the store, areas where food and beverage products connote more luxury, such as chocolate, ice cream, and wine and spirits. Until recently, black has rarely been used as a “snacky” color, seldom used on packages merchandised in the snack aisle or near the register. It’s new. It stands out. Black is sexy and fresh, and black is eternal. Black is and always will be the new black, but unless it is used carefully, black is also a trap, waiting to snare unsuspecting brands.

White Inks for Dark Packaging

AT Information Products offers white solvent inks for coding on a variety of black packaging using Markoprint technology. The white ink allows manufacturers to stay in compliance by printing hi-resolution codes from up to 5 millimeters away on products and packages.

To learn more about Markoprint and white solvent inks, call AT Information Products at (201) 529-0202 or send a message to [email protected]