Udeat field note
Shelf behaviour, silhouette, material and the first two seconds.
The first read is not copy
Before the customer reads the product name, they have already seen size, colour, shape, finish, weight and contrast. That pre-verbal read is packaging design doing its actual job.
Hierarchy is physical
A pack is not a poster flattened onto cardboard. It has edges, seams, hands, shelves, glare, stacks and distances. The hierarchy has to survive all of them.
Make the object recognisable
Good packaging gives the range a silhouette and rhythm people can identify before they can read the tiny text. Copy can then explain. It should not have to rescue the object.
The useful question is rarely “what style should this be?” It is “what is this actually trying to make someone notice?”