# Packaging and label design > Wine and beer labels, food packaging and coordinated print materials — from concept to print-ready files. Designing for producers since 2018. Page: https://www.studiojem.it/en/services/packaging/ A label gets three seconds on the shelf. We design so three is enough. Packaging is the only piece of communication your customer actually holds. On a crowded shelf, a label has a few seconds to get picked — and no second chance. We design packaging and labels for the people who live off that moment: wineries, craft breweries, dairies, food producers, product brands. From concept to final artwork to a managed print run. We work from Sardinia, where the product is often extraordinary and the pack rarely does it justice. On packaging we hold one firm belief: beautiful is not enough — it has to be recognisable. Beauty makes someone pick up the bottle once. Recognition makes them buy it again. ## What's included ### Labels for wine, beer and food Front, back and capsule for wine. Can and bottle for beer. Jars, wraps and packs for cheese, preserves and baked goods. One label or the full range, with a system that keeps each product distinguishable at a glance. ### Primary and secondary packaging Boxes, cartons, sleeves, pouches, bags, gift packs. The primary pack protects and presents; the secondary one ships, stacks and gets gifted. We design them together, because your customer sees them together. ### Coordinated stationery Business cards, letterhead, email signature and printed materials aligned with the brand. If the label says one thing and the business card another, the brand breaks. ### Print-ready artwork Die-cut paths, bleeds, overprint, separated Pantone inks, finishing specs. Final artwork is where good designs fail — we prepare it to your printer's specifications, not to a generic template. ### Print management If you want, we run the whole flow: printer selection, quotes, colour proofs, first-run check. One contact from brief to delivered pallet. ## Method Packaging has a constraint digital design doesn't: once printed, there is no deploy to fix it. Every step exists to remove risk before the press starts. - **Brief and constraints** — Format, material, print run, budget, sales channels. Plus the mandatory information your consultant has defined — ingredients, alcohol content, lot — because it belongs in the layout from day one, not the last. - **Research and concept** — We go look at the actual shelf, where your product will compete. Two or three creative directions, mounted on mockups of the real format, never on an abstract rectangle. - **Development** — Typography, illustration or photography, information hierarchy, back label, roll-out across the rest of the range. Revisions are included and agreed before we start. - **Artwork and proof** — Files to the printer's specifications: die-cut, bleeds, spot colours, finishes. Then a colour proof. That is where problems surface — better on one proof sheet than on ten thousand labels. - **Print and delivery** — We coordinate the printer through to delivery and check the first run. You receive the open files and the print-ready PDFs: reprinting is yours, with no dependency on us. ## What we build with Projects are built in Illustrator for vector paths and die-cuts, Photoshop for imagery, InDesign for multi-page coordinated materials. Critical colours travel as Pantone inks, with controlled CMYK conversion. You evaluate the design on 3D mockups at real scale — the bottle with your label, the box open and closed — and the same renders work for your shop and social channels before the product is even printed. On the press side we use the finishes that give a label its texture: natural and embossed papers, hot foil, blind embossing, UV varnish. Never as decoration, only when the positioning earns them. A €30 wine on the shelf should also look like a €30 wine. Adobe Illustrator · Photoshop · InDesign · Pantone · 3D mockups · Colour proof · Hot foil · Blind embossing ## The mistakes that shorten a label's life After years of food and beverage work, we keep seeing the same four. - **Designing on screen, printing blind** — A label approved on a backlit monitor is a bet: colours shift, paper absorbs, the real format is smaller than it looked. That's why we insist on real-scale mockups and a colour proof. - **Filling every centimetre** — The urge to say everything — history, territory, awards, pairings — produces labels that say nothing. Hierarchy wins: one element that hooks from a distance, the rest legible up close. - **Copying the category leader** — If your Vermentino looks like the best-selling Vermentino, you just paid to be mistaken for someone else. Category codes exist to be understood, so you know where to break them. - **Treating the range as separate labels** — Every new product designed in isolation erodes the system. We design the first label with the tenth in mind: one structure, recognisable variants, room to grow. ## The shelf is the test Packaging isn't judged in a presentation — it's judged with the product sitting among its competitors, and as part of a wider brand system. - **Sardinian products, crowded categories** — The labels of [Nuraghe Antigori](/en/work/cantine-antigori/), the wines of SadiTappo.Wine, the packs of Caseificio Deidda, the craft beer of [Birrificio Nanumoru](/en/work/nanumoru/): same problem, standing out without dressing up as something else. - **Packaging inside the identity** — For [LOWE](/en/work/lowe-longevity-wellness/) the identity lives on packaging, merchandising, signage and interiors; for [Fionard](/en/work/fionard/) the graphics printed on the garments are the product. - **The brand first, the label after** — If the brand doesn't exist yet, start with [branding and logo](/en/services/branding-logo/). The other way round means building your label on temporary foundations. ## How much it costs The price depends on the scope: one label or one pack from concept to print-ready files, coordinated stationery, a product range, a custom die-cut, a project that starts from the logo. Printing is paid directly to the printer, with quotes shown before proceeding: no hidden markup. If the product also sells online, the project can continue with the [shop](/en/services/ecommerce/) — the box that lands at home is the brand's last touchpoint, and often its most photographed. ## FAQ ### How much does packaging design cost? It depends on the scope: a single label or a full range, a standard pack or a custom die-cut, with or without coordinated stationery and print management. Tell us format, print runs and deadlines at /en/quote/ and you get a dedicated quote, written and free. ### How long does a label take? Design takes 2–4 weeks: brief, concept, development and revisions, final artwork. Printing adds 1–2 weeks depending on the printer, materials and finishes. If you have a deadline — harvest, trade fair, launch — it goes into the plan on day one. ### Do you manage printing too? Yes. We work with selected printers in Sardinia and across Italy: we collect quotes, follow the colour proofs and check the first run. If you already have a printer you trust, we prepare the artwork to their specifications and deal with them directly. ### Who handles the mandatory label information? The mandatory content — ingredients, allergens, alcohol content, lot number, legal references — is defined by you and your consultant, because it varies by product and market. We build it into the layout, respecting minimum sizes and legibility without sacrificing the design. ### Can I reprint on my own? Yes. On delivery you get the print-ready PDFs and the open files, with usage rights transferred. Reprint whenever you want, with any printer you want — today or in five years. If you change format or add a product, we adapt the files without starting over.