Emerging Food Packaging Design Trends

The trends shaping food packaging design go beyond the box, reflecting the changing world around us. With consumers valuing the power of sustainability, food packaging is adopting new, environmentally-friendly solutions. They are also leading the tech evolution, with smart features like QR codes, helping to enhance the customer experience. Food packaging is also experimenting with new style trends. For instance, the use of classic fonts and colours revives a vintage style that connects with a customer’s nostalgia. Read on to discover 12 design trends in food packaging that are shaping 2025. 

12 Food Packaging Design Trends 2025

1. Smart Features & Tech Integration

Technology is all around us, and has even evolved to the point that it’s in our packaging. Smart features such as QR codes, RFID tags and augmented reality (AR) are being incorporated to transform packaging into an interactive experience. These elements can allow for customers to access product information, such as calorie counts or ingredients, videos or other exclusive content.

Above: Packaging for Pepsi and DC Comics for Comic Con, featuring the characters from Justice League of America.

2. Mascots & Illustrations

One of the most playful design trends of 2025 has been the growing popularity of fun, cartoon mascots. Mascots have been a part of packaging design for decades, most famously on cereal boxes with Toucan Sam, Tony the Tiger and King Willie Weetie. However, a fresh swath of mascots is appearing on food packaging to bring a much-needed variety. 

What’s unique about this wave of mascots is how they embrace simplicity. We applied this to our packaging for Full Spectrum, creating three iconic mascots. It’s a simple design choice that adds a splash of friendliness and approachability to their packaging, especially for FMCG products looking to create a quick, direct connection.

3. Minimalist Packaging

Minimalism has really been “the” design trend of the 21st century. Brands like Apple and Google have shown how a design philosophy focusing on simplicity and functionality can be hugely successful. In 2025, this trend is really starting to take off within food packaging. Minimalism removes the noise and lets the product speak for itself. Taking a cue from design legends like Mies van der Rohe, this approach pares packaging back to the essentials-stripping away excess graphics and colour in favour of simple fonts, clean layouts, and restraint. The result is a refined, confident presentation that feels both modern and timeless, putting all the focus where it matters: on the quality of what’s inside.

Our packaging design for Top Athlete applies this mindset, stripping back any extraneous details and creating a clean layout. Although it’s simple, this makes the presentation appear visually clean and sophisticated to potential buyers. 

4. Bold and Vibrant Colours

Cover your packaging with bold, saturated colours to make your product truly stand out in a crowded market. With different colours linked to different emotions, this can be a smart way to give your packaging a huge personality boost. Before consumers have even opened your package, your vibrant colours can evoke a sense of freshness and vitality. Think of it as the visual equivalent of a warm smile, shifting your packaging’s tone to approachability and fun that sticks in your customer’s mind. 

Our design for Cultcha Kombucha makes use of a bright and bold colour scheme to not only differentiate between flavours, but to evoke a fun and fresh feeling associated with the drinks.

5. Texture

Packaging trends aren’t just limited to appearance, but also the feel and texture of the product itself. More and more brands are moving away from the traditional, smooth-surfaced packaging to apply more interesting textures. Embossed details, soft-touch coatings and metallic foils can all have a tactical influence on how a customer engages with your product. 

Chobani Australia has experimented with different packaging textures. For example, in their Gippsland Diary Yoghurt containers, they use embossed branding. This is a special type of texture that creates a three-dimensional effect to give your product a premium feel. 

6. E-commerce-first approach

As our habits change, the packaging around us has to change too. Because many of our spending habits have moved online, this increases the need for food packaging that’s robust and suitable for transportation. Catering to e-commerce customers also means designing packaging with minimal spillage that keeps food secure and quality intact. 

ZenPacks is a provider of sustainable food packaging designed for takeaway. This includes food containers and takeaway bags, which are constructed from compostable materials that are highly transportable due to their simple, durable design.

Above: Packaging for Cambio created by Zenpecks.

7. Environmentally-friendly materials

Brands have shifted away from traditional materials amidst customer pressures to adopt renewable solutions. Brands are instead choosing recyclable, biodegradable and environmentally friendly options. For example, you could use mycelium packaging, which is developed from naturally compostable mushroom roots. Adopting environmentally-friendly materials not only lessens your environmental impacts, but it can also enhance your reputation and loyalty amongst consumers. 

Brands that make this switch the best can meet their renewable goals without sacrificing the quality of their packaging. Tasmanian apple producer R&R is a great example of this, using both cardboard packing, as well as ensuring their bags are made from the plant-based PLA (polylactic acid) that is naturally derived from corn or sugarcane.

8. Eco-Friendly Aesthetics

With sustainability a focus for consumers, brands should consider redesigning a product’s presentation to embrace the eco-friendly aesthetic. This means not just altering the material of your packaging, but its appearance too. Try to experiment with colours that call back to sustainability, such as earth tones like sunny yellows and deep greens. If your food product is organic, consider adding leaves or lush scenery as well. 

Love Tea is a Melbourne-based business that sells tea bags, packaged from a renewable plant-based cellophane that is easily compostable. This focus on sustainability is reflected in their product’s presentation, with simple, earthy colours accompanied by illustrations of leaves, seeds and plants. 

9. Bold Typography

In the modern age, shopping is now all about speed and efficiency. No one wants to think too long about a decision, with a customer wanting packaging that’s clear and upfront. Bold typography offers a practical solution to these desires by using fonts and logos that are thicker and darker to emphasise a specific word or key phrase to customers. 

Bold typography can also be super stylish. Think brands like Vogue or GQ, where bold typography can build a sense of refinement. In drink packaging, a great example of this is our work for Damaged Goods Distilling Co. We applied a bold, and eye-catching type to the packaging. It’s also dynamic, and runs across the label playfully along with the other graphic elements.

10. Vintage-inspired

Crafting packaging with a retro charm can trigger feelings of nostalgia for simpler times. This isn’t just about reviving old designs for the sake of it, this creates a playful aesthetic that connects the past to our future. Brands that have done this the best draw inspiration from previous generations, with classic colour palettes, old-school typography and vintage illustrations. To find connections with older customers who long for the past, or even younger generations who have an affinity for an era they never experienced. 

Australian chocolatier Koko Black has fully embraced the retro design, reminiscent of the mid-century era. Their packaging helps to reflect this style through typography, vintage patterns and a classic colour palette

11. Transparent Packaging

Within our current era of sustainability, brands are searching for ways to convey honesty and transparency. Clear packaging is a relevant trend because it allows customers to know exactly what they’re buying. A great way to build trust right away, with transparent materials and window elements, allowing customers to check their food’s colour, freshness and texture. 

This packaging style is especially useful for food whose visual appearance can be indicative of its quality. Brands that sell meat use transparent packaging to allow customers to see any signs of spoilage or discolouration. 

12. Personalised Packaging

Personalised packaging is changing the relationship between a brand and its customer. Instead of a rigid design, personalised packaging puts the control into the hands of the customer. Allows them to craft something which is truly unique and a smart way to build lasting connections. Digital printing services can add names, messages and even specific designs or colours to every individual package. For FMCG start-ups, adding a personalised packaging service can be a powerful way to build long-term relationships with your early adopters. Driving word of mouth and loyalty in a competitive market. King Tide Brewery and Manly Spirits have been allowing their customers to create their own custom product labels. This is a creative solution to establishing lasting connections between product and customer.

Trends are constantly shaping the development of food packaging design, with customer pushes towards sustainability and technology, packaging is adopting new design techniques to remain contemporary. Staying ahead of new design trends, businesses can ensure their product never falls out of style. For more information on how you can transform your packaging, please reach out to Brandwell. The experts in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), can establish your brand or grow your product range.