Inspirational Standup Pouch Designs

When I talk to clients about a switch to standup pouches there's often hesitancy that a "pouch won't look as good as a bottle." I understand where this is coming from because as recently as a few years ago pouches were flimsy and felt more like a potato chips bag than premium packaging. The artwork was also generally as exciting as a bag of Lays too.

But a lot has changed in just the last few years. 

First, the material is robust and high-quality: it's unlikely to break in transit and it also feels premium to the touch. 

Second, good graphic designers have elevated their creativity to leverage the full surface area of the packaging. There's actually a lot more cool creative designs that can be done on a full-bleed rectangular pouch than a wrap-around label.

Here are a few really cool designs that I really like that you may be able to use for inspo. Note that they're mostly not nutrition brands because I think the best creative inspiration comes from borrowing ideas from outside the conformity of the nutritional industry.

Skratch's electrolyte pouch is a very simple design but leverages metallic print and cool gradients for eye-catching shelf-appeal.

Birch Benders illustrations reminds me of old album covers: every time you look you see something different that you didn't notice before - an eagle flying this time, an erupting volcano the next time and you wonder if there's some underlying theme tying all the symbolism together. It's fun, captivating and totally unique.

The Mason Jar Cookie Co's packaging is the ultimate in irony: a mason jar that's perfectly imitated in both art and shape as a standup pouch. Doing something similar for a protein or preworkout bottle would be similarly eye-catching. The first time I ever saw this was actually with LeGrand's Tomato Sauce so it's spawned a few imitators.

CBD - A little hectic but the flavor dripping from the top catch your eye. I could see something similar for a vanilla or chocolate protein with milkshake drips sliding down from the top.

This pouch takes a simplistic approach, but it's very on-trend with the natural styling. I can see this doing very well with a protein with its clean look and simple copy.