CPG Packaging Design in Chicago That Moves Product Off the Shelf

The best packaging designs capture a brand’s essence and stop a customer in their tracks—That’s how Seedhouse gets your product moving.

 

Package Designs that Work

Good CPG packaging design helps elicit an emotional response and stand out from the competition. Your package should get into the consumer’s hand with the face panel, and their shopping carts through the experience of the rest of the package’s design elements.

We believe that packaging should do so much more than just protect the contents.

When Westminster Bakers Co. needed a packaging redesign for their line of crackers, Seedhouse used consumer research to validate a new design that grew the regional brand to a national one – now with $14M in annual sales. See the work →

Over 50 Years of CPG Packaging Design Experience in Chicago

With over 50 years of combined experience working on CPG, from small challenger brands to larger corporate entities, we’ve got the experience and skillset to get your product moving. 

Our Packaging Design Services

Package Design: A compelling and differentiated package design can help you get into someone’s hand and eventually their cart. Packaging is your silent sales person, and in-person influencer. We design packaging that helps brands grow.

Packaging Redesign/Refresh: Understanding the brand equities is the first step in a succesful redesign. We explore a range of evolutionary to revolutionary designs to test how far the redesign has to go in order to meet the business goals.

Line Extension: We develop packaging design systems that allow a brand to extend. We also respectfully work within a brand’s look to find how a system can extend to new offerings.

Market Research/Visual Benchmarking: We go out into the market to collect a complete understanding of how a consumer makes a purchase decision. Baselining the visual vocabulary of a category and the competitive positioning gives us a clearer path to meaningful differentiation.

Product Renders: We create digital mock-ups to arm a brand with the assets it needs to reach consumers across direct-to-consumer and e-commerce sites.

Keyline/Print Production: We usher a project all the way to completion – including producing final art files on dielines and even doing press checks.

Substrate & Package Innovation: We evaluate and recommend packaging materials that reduce production costs, improve shelf presence, and meet sustainability goals.

Structural Innovation: We research and design structures that bring your brand’s unique selling proposition to life in an ownable and production-friendly physical form.

Consumer Research: Whether qualitative or quantitative, pre- or post-design, we leverage consumer insights to ensure project success.

Research Guaranteed—Refresh Without the Risk

With quick and predictive online research, we can guarantee that a packaging design will lift sales. Hearing directly from the target consumer takes the risk out of design choices. For design refreshes and redesigns, layering that data with a survey of existing consumers wipes out any doubt about customer retention and takes the subjectivity out of the design process.

Get them to eat with their eyes

Packaging acts like a fishing lure.

Our years of experience facilitating and analyzing consumer research has given us a unique window into how consumers shop at grocery, convenience, big box stores, on-line, etc. We leverage those learnings for each and every one of our projects—making the packaging design stronger and more effective in the CPG space.

From Creative Packaging Innovation to Full Production

Seedhouse is capable of taking your packaging project from immersion and market research through initial concepts, all the way to final production files and press checks.

Get the Best CPG Packaging Design in Chicago with Our Team

Seedhouse is a boutique brand design firm run by a bunch of experienced, industrious folks. As an offshoot of a renowned, disciplined brand design consultancy, we are able to offer big agency perspective and experience together with the agility and responsiveness of a smaller firm. It’s the best of both worlds.

With over 60 years of collective experience serving CPG categories like food, supplements and beverage, the Seedhouse team is unmatched. With varying interests from paddle ball to sustainability and flower arranging to historical restoration, our team is capable of a wide variety of styles, so your project won’t end up looking like another company. Our people, our experience with brands big and small – from Heinz & Big League Chew to Switchback & Go Brewing.

Our focus on customer service makes us able to craft the best CPG packaging design in Chicago and beyond. We’ve helped brands regain share or launch in major retailers like Target, Walmart, Whole Foods Market and Home Depot. 

Meaningfully Different

At Seedhouse, design is a business tool. Great strategy paired with stellar design take the risk out of going to market. Our CPG Packaging Design expertise comes together with our Research experience to safeguard making your brand a reality that works—against the competition and in a way that emotionally resonates with your target customer.

FAQ:

Q: What is CPG packaging design?
A: CPG packaging design is the strategic and visual design process of creating packaging for consumer packaged goods — products sold in retail stores or online. It combines brand identity, packaging design, and consumer psychology to influence purchase decisions at the shelf or point of sale.

Q: How much does CPG packaging design cost?
A: All of Seedhouse’s packaging design services follow our process, ensuring a strategic and results-driven approach to every project. CPG packaging design projects in Chicago typically range from $25,000 to $300,000+ depending on scope — a focused label refresh for a few SKUs sits at the lower end, while a full brand identity with structural innovation, photography and consumer research testing sits at the higher end. Boutique agencies like Seedhouse often provide more competitive pricing than large consultancies with comparable strategic output.

Q: What industries and categories is Seedhouse’s process best fit for?
A:
Seedhouse works across many different CPG categories which includes the FMCG and CDG (consumer durable goods) sectors. In FMCG, we are recognized as an award-winning food packaging design agency and beverage packaging design agency. In CDG we have a proven track record for hardware, automotive and household  products. 

Q: What are Seedhouse’s recognized achievements?
A: We have been name People to Watch in Packaging Design by Graphic Design USA. Our packaging design has also been recognized for the GDUSA Packaging Design Awards. We have had many brand identities also included in Logo Lounge’s top identities.

Q: What’s the difference between a packaging redesign and a packaging refresh?
A: A packaging refresh updates visual elements — colors, typography, imagery — while preserving brand equity and consumer recognition. A full redesign reimagines the brand positioning, structure, and visual language from the ground up, typically used when a product is underperforming, has new competitive stress or entering a new market.

Q: How do I know if my packaging design is working?
A: Effective CPG packaging drives measurable outcomes: increased shelf pick-up rates, higher conversion in retail audits, and improved brand recall in consumer surveys. Design firms that integrate consumer research testing — as Seedhouse does — can validate packaging performance before it hits shelves.

Q: Why should I hire a Chicago-based CPG packaging design agency?
A: A Chicago-based agency offers direct access to the Midwestern CPG retail market, including major grocery chains and club stores headquartered in the region. Local teams can attend in-store audits, meet in person for reviews, and leverage regional market knowledge that remote agencies may lack. We also have that good Midwestern work ethic! We don’t rest until your project is perfect.

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