This March, the Seedhouse team (and 65k+ other food industry folks) walked the Natural Products Expo West show and saw so much! Almost 30,000 steps over 2 days, we perused 3,000 exhibiting brands. Here are the packaging design trends we spotted – in our 2024 Expo West Design Trend Round Up.
Bold bright colors caught our eye on everything from butter to prepared protein. Examples: El Nacho Tortilla Chips, Choppy Protein, Churn Flavored Butter, Evergreen
Packaging took the look of a magazine cover this show—headline-like text with editorial style photos or illustrations with people in them! We haven’t seen that trend in packaging in a long time. How exciting! Examples: Best Behavior, Sobo Dumplings, Impossible, Rob’s Backstage Popcorn 
Slab Serif & Black Letter—fun typography pulled us into brands like BeeKeeper, Coyotas, Baris and Golden Wing.
We appreciated the more naive design trend – simple and unaffected. ‘Gone’ are the super slick type and photos. ‘In’ are the rough shapes and hand lettering. Examples: Forage Tepache, Zab’s, Coyotas, Mela Water
Smiling plushies were selling all kinds of products this year and we’re here for it. Whether it was a dumpling or a cow or a sea monster or a three-eyed bunny, we are excited to see and play with more mascots in branding and packaging. Examples: Dumpling Daughter, Bored Cow, Drink Weird, Sea Monsters.
Our favorite bites & sips were: MyBacon, Patience SourCran, Fabalish x Mr. Bing Chili Crisp Spicy Ranch, Wow Bao Cheeseburger Bao, Moss Pure Drink, San Diablo Artisan Churros
Thanks for reading the Seedhouse Expo West Design Trend Round Up! Let us know what blew you away or other trends you spotted. Also, follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for peeks into our day to day, design tidbits, & visual inspiration. If you are looking for past Seedhouse news, check this out.
