July 12, 2021
Great packaging design isn’t just about making a product look nice.
Though visuals play a huge part, a sharp piece of product packaging also has to communicate essential information at a glance.
Words are key to a smart piece of product packaging – not just what you say, but how you say it.
That’s why we need to talk about spell checking.
Just one misplaced letter can totally alter the meaning of a word. Some other common mistakes include:
- Your and You’re
- They’re, There and Their
- Its and It’s
- Too, Two and To
- Peak and Peek
- Aloud and Allowed
- Have and Of
- Who’s and Whose
- Where, We’re and Were
And many, many others.
As far back as 2012, the BBC highlighted a survey that suggested spell-checking software had helped to create an ‘auto-correct generation’, with many adults unable to spell common words.
Of the 2,000 UK adults surveyed at the time, a third could not spell the word “definitely” while two-thirds spelled “necessary” wrong.
The crux of the survey was that, while 96% of respondents said spelling was important, two-thirds admitted to using a spell checker ‘all’ or ‘most’ of the time.
10 years on from that survey and there is more spell-checking software than ever.
Microsoft Word and Google Docs have spell checking naturally integrated, but you can now also enter your text in writing aids such as Grammarly, Ginger, WhiteSmoke and others, totally free of charge.
Rely on those around you as well as spell-checkers
Now, we’re not trying to be preachy here, or threaten to tap the back of your hand with a ruler for spelling a word wrong.
The point is that, while there is so much spell-checking software out there to give you a hand, it’s mainly in word-processing software, and highlights why a keen eye for detail is so important in packaging design.
Design software focuses mainly on visuals. A lot of design software, therefore, doesn’t have a spell check feature, such as Canva.
When creating packaging, therefore, it’s so important to check, check and check again to make sure everything is correct. That includes getting as many pairs of eyes as possible to double and triple check, just in case.
There’s nothing more frustrating than finishing a project only to catch a simple misspelling when it rolls off the production line. If you can see it, then your target audience most certainly will, too.
And these mistakes can be so simple to make, too. You may have written the packaging text out in Word, first, and are satisfied to see there are no red squiggles anywhere.
Is the document set to British or American English, though? Have you written ‘colour’ or ‘color’?
Different spellings of words mean different things, too, that you may not know about. A ‘compliment’ is polite praise, for instance, while to ‘complement’ is to add an extra feature to something.
Taking the time to check your packaging drafts again and again to make sure any human and software errors are picked up is an invaluable step of each and every project.
Creating great product packaging isn’t just about making it look nice. Attention to detail is just as important to creating something that stands out on the shelves.