Design your packaging

Your package is your best ad. It sits on the shelf, shows up in every product photo, and is the first thing a customer touches. It's also a file a factory has to print exactly, and that changes how you should design it.

What happened at Lezzet

The typos made it onto the bags. The back of the Lezzet bag carries a lot of small text: brewing steps, ingredients, the address, a QR code line. Some of that artwork was produced by AI image tools. AI image models draw letters; they don't type them. We printed bags that said "cesve" instead of cezve, "PULL TAR" instead of tab, and "authentie." The Cardamom bag was the worst.

We fixed every photo on the website and marketplaces with careful edits. But the physical bags still carry the typos until the next print run. A typo in a file costs nothing to fix. A typo in 5,000 printed bags costs a print run.

The bag changed once already. The first bags were kraft brown. In September 2026 we retired them for a cream bag, and spent weeks chasing old kraft photos out of Google, Bing, and Walmart.

Why SVG files

AI image tools are great for exploring ideas: color, mood, layout, and what the bag looks like on a counter. But they make pictures (PNG or JPG), made of pixels. A manufacturer needs print-ready vector art, usually SVG, AI, PDF, or EPS:

If you only have an AI image, you'll pay a designer to redraw it as vector art. Or you build it as vector art from the start.

How to do it without a designer

Affinity is a professional design app, now free, that works with vector art and exports print-ready SVG and PDF files. It also has an MCP connector, so an AI assistant like Claude can work inside Affinity for you: build the layout, place shapes and text, and export the files.

The workflow:

1. Explore with AI images first. Generate as many bag concepts as you want. Pick one direction.
2. Rebuild it as vector art in Affinity. Use the AI image as a reference, then have the AI (through the Affinity connector) or yourself recreate it with real shapes, real fonts, and real text.
3. Type every word. Never trace text from an AI image. Type it, then spell-check it.
4. Use the factory's template. Ask your manufacturer for the dieline: the flat template showing the exact size, folds, seal areas, and safe zones. Design on top of it.
5. Set print colors. Pick colors by Pantone number or CMYK, the way the factory prints. Screen colors and printed colors are never quite the same.
6. Export SVG and PDF, with fonts converted to outlines so the factory doesn't need your fonts.

What goes on a food package

Every product category has rules. For a packaged food in the US, labels generally need a product name, net weight, ingredients, allergen information, and the name and address of the business. Nutrition facts are required for most foods, with some exemptions. Check the FDA's labeling guidance for your product before you print.

What to watch out for

• AI text. Read every letter on the final file out loud. Then have someone else read it.
• The proof. The factory sends a digital proof, and sometimes a printed sample. Check it against your file line by line before approving. Your approval means they're not responsible for what's in it.
• Colors on screen. A color that looks right on your phone can print darker or duller. Ask for a printed color sample for a big run.
• Claims you can't prove. Words like "organic" or "low acid" on a package need certification or lab results behind them.

What bites you later

• Minimum orders. Printed bags often come in runs of thousands. A mistake, or a design change, can leave you with boxes of bags you can't use.
• Old photos everywhere. Every package change means new photos on your site, your marketplaces, and your ads, and the old ones linger in search for months.
• Only having a PNG. If you ever need a new size or flavor, you'll want the editable vector file. Keep it, and keep a copy somewhere safe.