Jewelry packaging is a key component of your semi-precious product’s overall design. From diamonds to diamantes, when your product is as delicate and ornate as jewelry, your packaging has to work twice as hard in being as protective as it is attractive.
Not only must it assure the consumer of the quality and value of what’s inside it, but it has to protect the product inside from damage during shipping. It also must often provide safety and cleaning tips, instructions and even styling suggestions, with these printed on outer layers or inserts. Take a look at some of the great jewelry packaging designs we’ve collected below.
What to consider when you’re designing jewelry packaging
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When you’re designing jewelry packaging, think about the following factors:
- Where is the jewelry being sold? Off store shelves, or via ecommerce? Jewelry that will be shipped needs more protective packaging than jewelry taken off shelves. This can mean a larger box to accommodate bubble wrap, more layers of interior packaging, or simply a sturdier box.
- What kind of jewelry is it? Earrings can be packaged on cardstock, whereas bracelets are often packed in boxes. Choose packaging that not only presents your jewelry in an appealing way, but keeps it safe—a delicate necklace will tangle if it’s simply dropped into a box, and earrings can be lost in a large pouch or plastic bag, for example.
- What’s your budget for packaging? A higher budget doesn’t just mean more options, it means higher-quality options.
- How much packaging do you need? In other words, do you need simple cardstock holders or multiple layers of packaging for each piece?
Your answers to these questions will help you determine which kind of packaging is ideal for your product, like a box versus a bag or tube. Once you have the practical aspects of jewelry packaging design worked out, think about how you can communicate your brand persona through your packaging design. Ask yourself the following:
- What is your brand? How can your packaging design communicate this brand persona?
- Who is your demographic? A buyer who seeks handmade jewelry at artisan markets has different wants and expectations from somebody buying jewelry at an upscale department store counter.
- What is your desired aesthetic? Would you prefer packaging that makes the jewelry itself the main focus, or packaging that’s so decorative, it’s a feature in its own right?
If you’re not 100% sure who you are as a brand, take some time to do a few branding exercises designed to help you dial in your brand persona. You can also seek inspiration from other brands’ jewelry packaging designs. Luckily for you, we’ve got you covered…
Minimalist jewelry packaging
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“Minimalist” is a broad term that can be interpreted in a lot of different ways. A packaging designer can take it literally and create something that feels like it’s barely there, simply existing to hold a pair of earrings or house a bracelet as it travels from the inventory shelf to the buyer’s home.
This kind of minimalist packaging is a popular choice for earrings, especially small earrings. When you look at examples of earring packaging, a lot of the designs you’ll come across are basic cardstock holders.
There are other ways to do minimalist packaging, too. One is to go for a solid-colored package with a small mention of your brand name. If you’re doing a simple design like this, the texture of your packaging is super important to get right. It adds drama, tactility and brings attention to the logo of your design.
Or you can go with monochrome packaging that has your brand name embossed on it, rather than printed in a contrasting color.
Minimalist designs tend to stick to one or two colors and if there’s imagery at all, it’s minor and subtle. Often, the brand’s logo is the only piece of imagery on the packaging, as you see in the following designs.
One way to make your minimalist packaging more visually intriguing is to pair it with busier designs. Take a look at how this very minimalist box for Elly Jewelry below slides open to reveal tightly patterned packing paper.
Luxury jewelry packaging
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Luxury jewelry packaging spares no expense and can be as beautiful as the jewelry itself. This kind of packaging can have a minimalist look and feel, but that’s not a requirement.
What is required to make a design communicate luxury is some combination of the design choices consumers associate with high-end goods, like:
- A neutral color palette, often using white or black as the main color
- Metallics
- Serif fonts
- Angular fonts and shapes
This is without forgetting the one non-negotiable of luxury goods: quality materials. That means high-quality leather, smooth lacquer plastics, customized wooden boxes and thick, durable paper for your packaging labels and other paper elements. No matter how your luxury jewelry packaging looks, it needs to feel luxurious in the buyer’s hands. Keep that in mind when you’re choosing materials for your packaging and working out your budget.
Texture goes a long way in communicating a sense of luxury, especially in packaging. Think about the difference between a shopping bag from a value-focused mall store (often a thin plastic or if it’s paper, a basic, foldable brown paper bag) and a bag from a higher-end shop. In many cases, luxury retailers invest in thicker, more durable shopping bags, communicating a sense of quality through every touchpoint with the buyer.
Anything “extra” about the packaging also communicates that you put extra thought into designing your packaging, which in turn communicates quality. For jewelry packaging, this can mean a box that unfolds outward or slides open by pulling on a ribbon, rather than a simple box with a lid. You see this kind of mechanism in the box below, paired with an exterior design that mimics a wax seal.
Another common characteristic you’ll find with luxury packaging is a sleek, streamlined look and feel. Take a look at the packaging our designer Dany Dada designed for these code-inspired bracelets:
Reusable and sustainable jewelry packaging
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Reusable jewelry packaging isn’t just a way to be more sustainable—it’s a way to make your brand memorable. And there are lots of ways to do it, such as metal tins, drawstring bags, decorative boxes, etc.
Many eco-focused jewelry brands create their pieces out of recycled materials, like recycled cardboard and plastic. Others opt for reused and upcycled packaging options, like Monbouquette’s choice to ship their products in reused Amazon boxes.
There are lots of ways to get creative with eco-friendly jewelry packaging, like these seed paper earring holders:
If your brand is focused on sustainability, opting for recycled, upcycled or reusable packaging is an awesome way to cut down waste and demonstrate your commitment to eco-friendly business practices. Not only this, but it becomes a design feature in its own right. Check out the gorgeous finish on the mint green packaging below. Its beautifully unique, imperfect texture adds a personal touch.
You can also make jewelry boxes a part of your product lineup and as a sustainable packaging option, offer package deals where buyers get a discount on the jewelry box when they buy it with a piece of jewelry. Then, you can skip disposable packaging altogether by shipping the jewelry right in the storage/display box.
Neopunk jewelry packaging
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Regardless of what style your product is, your jewelry packaging designs need to reflect it. So if you prefer spikes and skulls over dainty chains and studs, these are great motifs to get printed on your jewelry box or packaging insert.
Dramatic monochrome color schemes are often popular with this genre, showing the depth of brand character to audiences. Symbolism reflects light and dark sides, which connects emotionally to target audiences who can resonate with this sentiment.
Y2k jewelry packaging
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Another subculture of jewelry packaging finds itself in the y2k aesthetic, which originated in the year 2000. A prime example of great nostalgic marketing, this genre entices audiences to look through rose-tinted glasses at the dawning of this millennium through subtle nuances in design.
These years saw people all over the world gain the same unusual new family members—mobile phones and the internet. Society was entranced by the then-futuristic technologies with more naivety than today. The y2k aesthetic was dappled with cyberspace themes, inspiring the intergalactic gradients and bright white color palettes we’re seeing more and more of today.
Additionally, this period was heavily dominated by the use of one material. Single-use plastic were guilt-free staples of every household, which guides the y2k jewelry packaging translucent containers we often see for sports or leisure-wear brands.
Most iconic jewelry packaging
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Looking at iconic brands in the jewelry industry, consider Tiffany’s and their iconic blue boxes. The brand became famous following the release of the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, then cemented their iconic packaging look by trademarking their signature color, Tiffany Blue, in 1998.
You might not be able to prevent other brands from using your iconic color—a 2008 ruling awarded Cadbury the right to use their iconic purple on chocolate packaging, but rival Nestle could use similar colors on packaging for other products—but if you choose a unique color palette and make it an integral part of every piece of your brand’s packaging, buyers will be able to pick your product out from a mile away.
There are lots of ways to make your brand stand out and become an icon. One is to lean on influencer marketing and work with creators with a lot of clout to showcase your packaging on their platforms. A great way to do this is through unboxing videos—by carefully unwrapping the packaging, piece by piece, the influencer creates anticipation and keeps eyes on the video until the final product is revealed.
To get the most out of an unboxing video, put your logo in a prominent spot on your packaging. And if you can put the logo on multiple layers, like the outer box as well as the paper the jewelry is wrapped in, all the better.
Novelty jewelry packaging
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Jewelry packaging can be fun, too. If your brand is playful, irreverent, loud or meant for children, lean into that brand persona with fun jewelry packaging. There are lots of different ways to have fun with your packaging, like bold colors, engaging characters, whimsical shapes and patterns and unexpected kinds of packaging.
For example, take designer Stanbranding’s packaging below—it turns the hair accessories into jewelry for the character on the packaging. Or how about Plush Design’s packaging design, next to it? The box containing jewelry, crystals and aromatherapy products teases at the products’ perceived energizing effect and uses playful hand-drawn-inspired illustrations of cut crystals to ramp up recipients’ excitement to see what’s inside.
Another fun way to package your jewelry is to create a novelty unboxing—or in the case with the below design, unburning?—experience.
With this design, the product itself is a candle with a ring embedded in its wax, only accessible by burning the candle. The design is a colorful cylindrical box that’s dramatically different from most of the jewelry packaging the buyer’s seen before and entices the reader by telling them exactly what they’ll find inside: a genuine sterling silver ring valued at anywhere from $30 to $1,000.
That copy alone speaks to the part of the buyer’s brain that just can’t resist the urge to “get in it to win it,” so to speak, and it guarantees they’ll still think about how they got their ring even years after fishing it out of the candle’s melted wax.
Designer Sam2305 does something similar in their design for The Lover, pictured above. The product is a chocolate egg paired with a natural stone bracelet. The packaging design shows the chocolate and the bracelet side-by-side and with a small plastic window, showcases the chocolate.
If your brand persona is fun, bold, edgy or simply different from the jewelry industry standard in any way, novelty packaging can be an effective way to strengthen your brand persona and show your buyers exactly who you are. You can even be explicit about what you’re offering, like these last two examples that show and tell the buyer exactly what they’re getting—or what they have the chance at getting.
Don’t feel like you need to box yourself into established jewelry packaging types like velvet boxes or cardstock earring holders. After all, jewelry is all about self-expression. If the best way to express your brand is through a package that drives buyers to feel like they’re gambling when they buy your product, design a package they just can’t leave on the store shelf.
Craft the perfect jewelry packaging design for your brand
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Your jewelry is unique, so package it up in something that showcases that uniqueness. Whether it’s a super-luxe textured ring box or a colorful cloth sachet the buyer will keep for years, the right packaging for your product does more than keep it safe on store shelves—it acts as a key brand asset that buyers can’t wait to open up.
