Create Packaging Artwork Using Photoshop, Illustrator And Indesign
There are three main elements in creating a packaging artwork presentation using the Adobe Creative Suite (CS) or Creative Cloud (CC).
After the photo shoot the product photography is taken into Adobe Photoshop where images can be enhanced, modified or collaged together. Over the last 20 years Photoshop has become the industry-leading software in image editing. Its capabilities are endless but it's actually a very easy program to learn. Your product shots may require some colour and tonal adjustments, as well as some retouching. Special lighting effects may also be added at this stage, as well as a range of filters for aesthetic effect.
A mockup of the finished packaging can now be created in Photoshop. Each panel of the packaging should be created on a separate layer. These can now be distorted to look like the sides of a box package. Knowledge of perspective rules is valuable at this stage; this will help to create a false horizon and the converging parallels of each of the box's sides. Simply do an internet search for two or three-point perspective rules to get an idea of how objects sit in their real world environments and appear to the human eye. This will add a realism to your packaging mock ups. A subtle gradient could also be added to the background layer to simulate a horizon at eye level. You could also add a fake reflection below the box using the program's masking functions. The beauty of creating the mock ups in Photoshop is the ability to create Layer Comps, which are different compositions and colour options for presenting to a client, all of which can be saved in the one Photoshop file.
When the client is happy with the mock up the actual packaging artwork is created in Adobe Illustrator. Your printing company may already have templates for packaging which can be opened up in Illustrator. Over the last 25 years Illustrator has become the world-leader in illustration programs, used by a huge range of illustration professionals. As a vector-based program its shapes and text are created mathematically instead of being based on pixels, and can therefore be scaled to any size without losing their clarity. Lines are always clean and smooth, and colours are always solid and flat.
Type is best created in a vector program like Illustrator, especially small text which would look terrible if pixel-based. Fonts can easily be downloaded and added to your Illustrator artwork.
Finally the die-cut would be created in Illustrator as a separate layer, which serves as a guide for the printed card to be trimmed to. Again, your printing company should have templates for the die, including bleed guides and safe printing margins. Bleed guides are often between 2 - 5mm and ensure that when the job is printed that colours and photography will be printed to the edge of the paper. The resulting artwork should be submitted to the printer as either a PDF or in vector format, both of which are simple procedures in Illustrator. It's always best to ask your printer about their file format requirements at the start of the design and do your setup accordingly.
A presentation document for the client could then be compiled in Adobe Indesign. Indesign is the industry-leader in page layout programs, specializing in the creation of multi-page documents for printing and web. A template for the publication could be set up to include automatic page numbering, sections, a masthead, and text styles for consistency within the document. Your various Photoshop Layer Comps could then be placed, as well as mock ups and technical specifications. The finished document would then be outputted as a PDF for emailing to your client for approval.
As you can see, a working knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign can thus be utilized in the creation of professional product packaging. Our courses give you the confidence and expertise needed to create such documents as well as adding to your own skill set.
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