Which Coffee Bean Packaging Design Trends Came After the Pandemic?

The pandemic pushed coffee bean buying toward online platforms, and with e-commerce competition intense, packaging design became a way for brands to stand out. Designers from 99designs by Vista discussed 2022 coffee bean packaging and predicted six directions: serene style, text-solo style, laser style, eco-friendly style, collage style, and playful style.

Each style answers a current consumer demand, whether for inner peace, intuitive information, visual impact, sustainability, or a relaxed mood. More brands are expected to try avant-garde routes with bold patterns and color schemes to capture attention. Traditional coffee branding now weighs packaging as part of customer loyalty, not just shelf appeal.

The pandemic has changed people's consumption habits, accelerating the shift of coffee bean purchasing scenarios to online platforms. In an increasingly fierce e-commerce competition environment, packaging design has become an important bargaining chip for coffee brands to stand out. Designers from 99designs by Vista, a global freelance creator forum, discussed the coffee bean packaging styles for 2022 and predicted six design directions that may dominate the market this year: serene style, text-solo style, laser style, eco-friendly style, collage style, and playful style. These styles respectively respond to consumers' current demands for inner peace, intuitive information, visual impact, sustainable development, and a relaxed atmosphere, providing valuable references for coffee brands' packaging decisions.

Affected by the pandemic, countries have repeatedly adjusted their epidemic prevention policies, making it difficult for physical stores to maintain normal operations, and people's travel has also been subject to many restrictions. In the past two years, consumption scenarios have migrated on a large scale from offline to online, and coffee consumption is no exception. Data from the global coffee consumption report shows that after the pandemic, the number of people choosing to buy coffee beans online and learn to brew at home has continued to rise.

In the current era where competition on e-commerce platforms is becoming white-hot, product packaging plays a pivotal role if coffee brands want to be seen by consumers. When brand awareness is not yet sufficient to bring its own traffic and prices are difficult to break through in competition, packaging design has become the direction many coffee brands are betting on. An excellent set of packaging design not only tells a good story for the brand and showcases its personality, but is also an important part of cultivating customer brand loyalty.

Recently, a hot discussion appeared on the global freelance creators and designers forum (99designs by Vista): what style trends will coffee bean packaging design show in 2022. Based on the discussions and predictions of the designers, more coffee brands will try avant-garde routes this year, using bold patterns and color schemes to successfully capture attention and leave a deep impression when consumers quickly browse products.

However, some designers have put forward different views: when exaggerated designs become a common choice, they are instead prone to causing aesthetic fatigue. If most brands take the exaggerated color route, then simple designs can instead stand out among the dazzling array of products. Based on these discussions, participants summarized six coffee bean packaging design directions most likely to dominate in 2022.

1. "Serene Style" — A combination of clean tones and concise copy

As the pandemic continues to recur, people's emotions also fluctuate. Facing complex psychological states, consumers tend to seek peace and stability from every aspect of life. Coffee beans themselves represent purity and simplicity. With soft colors, refined copy, and clean font combinations, the product does not put a visual burden on people, while also conveying the mood that drinking coffee can bring relaxation.

2. "Text-Solo Style" — Clear layered pure text typography

According to previous design logic, excellent packaging cannot do without graphic elements. But in the current era pursuing tranquility, pure typography is gradually becoming a trend. Through text arrangement, product names, functions, and other key information are directly conveyed to consumers. Readability, legibility, reading time, font size, font shape, color, style — these elements can all make simple text typography unforgettable, and consumers can also use the emphasized text to distinguish coffee beans of different roast levels, different origins, and different flavors.

3. "Laser Style" — Material and light jointly create special visual effects

The laser color scheme, once regarded as "non-mainstream," has regained attention in recent years. The laser style is brighter than rainbow colors. The interaction between packaging material and light brings consumers a unique visual experience. The neon glow of light blue and pink paired with a white background forms an interesting contrast, and geometric shapes are layered to enhance the sense of edges, presenting a cool futuristic tech style. Applying this technique to coffee bean packaging can attract trend-seeking young consumers and also help change the new generation of consumers' preconceived impressions of traditional coffee.

4. "Eco-Friendly Style" — Reflecting the brand's sustainable development philosophy through eco-friendly materials

In today's world where environmental awareness is deeply rooted in people's hearts, the recyclability and sustainability of packaging have become key design concerns. Whether the packaging material itself is environmentally friendly is the core issue consumers care about. Designers predict that more eco-friendly materials will be widely used this year for the preservation and transportation of coffee beans, such as sealed jars made from coffee grounds and packaging bags made from non-wood fibers, emphasizing that coffee beans and coffee grounds are sustainable materials.

5. "Collage Style" — Conveying environmental concepts through collage art

By strengthening the layering of colors and geometric shapes, and using torn paper effects and raw textures to express the essence of recyclable materials, this style is very suitable for coffee brands hoping to enter the eco-friendly market. Collage design can show endless possibilities, allowing consumers to feel the brand's love for nature and emphasis on environmental protection from the packaging.

6. "Playful Style" — Creating a relaxed atmosphere with mischievous and quirky characters

An anxious living environment has led packaging design to begin leaning toward "prankish" and playful approaches. Designs that imitate children's drawings or carry a childlike sense have become a key direction. Those quirky 2D characters and childlike drawing-style characters are both cute and funny. Adopting this type of design for coffee bean packaging can create a relaxed and pleasant image for the brand, allowing consumers to naturally associate happy moments with the brand's coffee beans.

Image source: 99designs by Vista internet

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.