How to design a beverage label  in 9 simple steps

One of our customers is wanting to add a line of ice cream inspired beverage flavors to their brand and I was researching some label design ideas. During the creative process, I decided to create a reserouce to help others in the beverage label design stage.  This article is great for those who are designing, redesigning or creating a new beverage label. Below goes over the process of designing a beverage label in 9 simple steps. 

I’ve designed numerous label concepts and understand the design process and relating the look of the label to the key features of your brand. If you haven’t done any work on defining your brand, you may want to look into our Brand Development service, Brand Vibe, getting to know all about your beverage and the vision of the brand. With this service you get a brand board with design concepts while identifying the main concepts . These concepts and ideas of your brand are key to creating a product and label that speaks to and mirrors the vision of your brand. 

These helpful steps will give you the information you need to have a beverage label that you will be proud of, the customers will 

STEP ONE The beverage formulation 

Before you put ideas down on paper, you want to have a clear vision of what type of product you are making. If you are making a drink with coconut and lime flavors, then you may want to have coconut and lime on the label. If you are still figuring out the beverages formula, you may decide to switch some ingredients. If you take to the label design process too early, you may end up spending time with multiple revisions since you’re still deciding on the formula of your beverage. If you are 80% sure on the beverage commutation process and waiting on some slight modifications, then I’d say it’s time to take the next step towards creating your label. The design process can be a creative and exciting one. If you want to work on the design process at the same time as the formulation process, start with brainstorming ideas. Have a notebook handy, take screen shots and photos of ideas of labels you like and start the research process. If you’ve landed on our page and are unhappy with the current beverage formula you have or need help with your beverage formulation, contact us to help with your beverage formulation needs.

STEP TWO The product name 

You may already have the name of your company and the name of your brand or product may be different. When we had our energy drink company, we called it Buzz Beverages and the product name was Wild Buzz. You can have the same business name as your product or you can create something different. The name of your beverage is what would be on the beverage’s label. When researching names, you’ll want to do a trademark search to make sure the name is not being used. When coming up with the name of your beverage, you want to also make sure the website is available and social media handles. Adding the work drink before your beverage name or the word beverage after the name could be a creative way to use the drink name and social media handles. For example, mangodrink .com is an available domain name, but it’s $1700/ year. If you change the name to spicymangodrink .com,it’s only $21 for the year for the beverage domain name. As an extra tip, having the word spicy and mango in your domain name will help with search engine optimizations (but that’s a whole other topic).

For this resource, I'll be using a coconut lime beverage as an example beverage.   Some ideas for names would be something tropical like Cocoloco or Lime in the Coconut or Tropical Teaser. The name of your beverage could be something different all together like the blending of 2 names or initials or the city where you first had the idea for your product. TC's Miami Mix could be one of those examples or Hawaii Limeade. The name of your beverage is unique and special. Come up with a list of 10 possible names and test them, sleep on it and ask others their opinion. There are companies that will help you name your beverage. Wix actually has a free business name generator.

STEP THREE The vibe - The look, feel, message of the product and the brand

Before you start the design process, what is the vibe that your product has? When looking at the coconut lime beverage idea the vibe may be a tropical feel, relaxed and refreshed feeling when someone drinks the beverage and sees the label. Our Brand Development service goes into the brand vibe. If our coconut lime beverage has a relaxed feel, the colors may want to be relaxing colors like blue and green. With a tropical feel to the brand, we may want to add palm trees, or a background texture similar to water. If the label design team would use reds and oranges with flames and bright colors, that wouldn’t translate into a relaxed and refreshed product. Your design board, at this stage of the beverage label design process, would include inspiration photos. Maybe those photos are someone walking on the beach or a tropical sunset. When someone hears the name of your product how do you want them to feel? What words come to mind with your brand? If someone tastes your product, what do they tell you it tastes like? Many times, research on your brand can come from others who have tasted it and like it. When we do product testing of our own branded products, many times, revising the beverage flavor and taste is done with other family members. Have fun with your beverage and do a tasting with those near and dear to you to get their feedback on the vibe of your beverage. 

You also want to appeal to your target market. The people who are buying your product should be the ones that your label speak to. Would they be the ones reaching for your design concepts or will they choose another brand over yours? 

During the time that your creatives are come out is the time for you to test, revisit, refresh and refine your ideas. This is the time to search out, this is the future of your beverage brand. 

STEP FOUR Start the creative process

A great place to start with getting creative is by doing a Google search. I get a lot of ideas by searching through images and finding what stands out to me. If we are using the coconut lime beverage as an example, here’s some ideas that I came up with that matched the vibe of a relaxed and refreshing beverage. There were certain things that stood out to me when I did a a Google search. Also, I like to visit the drink section at local grocery stores, health food stores, mom and pop shops and Bev Mo. You can get a lot of inspiration from looking at what other companies are doing.  

There is inspiration all around you. All you have to do is look for it! Hang out in the spots your target market hangs out in. Visit places and do things someone who is buying your product would do - take a hike, ride a bike or 

For fonts that you like for your beverage label DaFont is great website where you can test the look of certain fonts. Canva is another great software program that is easy to use, has a lot of images and font options.  

STEP FIVE Deciding on the type of packaging you are going to use. 

When it comes to the actual design process of your beverage label, you want to know what packaging you are working with. Certain products require a label, think of a wine bottle for this example. A wine bottle has a label that is applied to the wine bottle. While other packaging has a printed label on the packaging itself, like a canned product or even a glass bottle where the label is printed directly on the beverage packaging. Your whole design concept is organized around the size of packaging and the space that your designer has for your beverage label. 

STEP SIX The essential parts of your beverage label

There are parts of the beverage label that all beverage labels should have. To learn more about the specific parts of what the requirements are for beverage labels see our resource guide here. There are about 12 elements of your beverage label that all products need to have. 

Beverage labels must meet specific requirements, which can vary depending on the country or region where the product is sold. There are common requirements for beverage labels, particularly in the U.S., under the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations.

Make sure to check the specific regulations and requirements. That’s why I’d important to hire an experienced company like Big Brands, LLC to oversee your beverage project. If your beverage label does not have the essential requirement, that could mean reprinting our label or can. Having to do a reprint could be a costly mistake. 

STEP SEVEN Putting it all together

Now that you have all your ideas, concepts, fonts, colors and label requirements you can start designing your beverage label. Our graphic artists use high quality design software that is compatible with either a label manufacturer or can or bottle company. There are many different components that go into the design process and you need to have a design professional in place. Our team has experience in beverage label design. Big Brands also has long standing relationships with beverage label and beverage packaging companies. 

STEP EIGHT Proofs, testing and final stamp of approval 

When manufacturing a beverage product, it is key to use quality vendors for each process of the project. When using Big Brands, we work with top quality label manufacturers and package suppliers. We look over the proofs for our stamp of approval and provide our customers with the knowledge to give their stamp of approval on their finished beverage label. Some labels have a test printer or customers are able to attend can productions and work directly with the label manufacturer. It is vital that Big Brands provides our expertise to our customer with each step of the beverage development process. 

STEP NINE The product is ready!

After the label has been approved and tested, the beverage manufacturing process starts. Since, your formula was in the approval process before your label was designed, the timeline and flow of your beverage project is progressing positively. We believe there is an order to the beverage manufacturing process. Our customers move along the beverage manufacturing process smoothly and quickly, while maintaining accuracy and efficiency.