Dielines can be intimidating when you first see one. To the eye, it seems like a flat, abstract drawing composed of solid lines, dotted lines, flaps, edges, tabs, and panels with no immediate resemblance to an actual package. The one thing that is useful to remember is that the dieline is a map. It shows you where to cut, where to fold, where artwork can bleed over the edge, and where to keep critical information clear of the edges.
Trim edges refer to the final, outer-most cut line. In other words, what falls outside the line will never be on the finished package. However, artwork must always reach slightly beyond the trim edge. That space is called bleed. Bleed is your insurance policy against unsightly, white gaps in your package when the cut is off a fraction of an inch. As you begin conceptual packaging design, you don’t have to become an expert in print production or packaging standards, you just have to learn how to avoid common design pitfalls. For example, while text and logos do not get placed in the bleed, background colors, textures, and images often do.
Fold lines refer to where the carton, sleeve, wrap, box structure, etc. is designed to fold. When you consider the visual balance of an artwork design as a flat surface, you may not realize when the flat surface is broken by a crease fold. In the flat design, your product name may cross a fold line making it harder to read, or an icon, symbol, or detail too near to a corner may become squashed once the package folds together. In summary, your dieline, front panel, side panel, back panel, glue flap, and closure area should each be considered as unique panels within your layout.
Safe Zones are a place in a design that must remain empty or clear. This includes important text, images, brand markings, barcodes, and ingredient and information panels on a package. In other words, the product name, brand mark, barcode, ingredient panel, or info blocks should sit well within the boundaries of the safe zones. Design beginners often try to use up every last square inch as the dieline appears to be a blank canvas, but packaging works well when the most essential features have some breathing room around them. Empty space is fine! As a matter of fact, empty space can even improve the readability of your packaging design.
The next step is to simply practice by printing or drawing a basic dieline, such as the tuck box below, and using colors and lines to define each of the spaces within the package. You can also use lighter tones to indicate where the final artwork would bleed over the edge of the final trim cut. Then you’ll place empty boxes within each of these design areas (logo, product name, image, barcode, back panel text, etc.), and you’ll place text within the safe zones. Don’t be tempted to add final text styles and colors just yet, just simply mark where they would be placed to best fit each of the panels. The point here is to visualize and understand the final shape of your package before you begin to actually design it.
At this point, take the flat image you have drawn and imagine how it would fold. Determine which part of the image is the front panel, back panel, side panel, glue flap, and closure. Is any part of your artwork going to be inside, where it may not be easily viewed? Is part of your design on a fold line, or too close to a fold line? What parts of your image will sit too near the glue flap or the trim edge? You can make simple, but very helpful design corrections with these minor adjustments.
You’ll know when you’re on your way to success when you look at the flat dieline file and understand where it folds, what can be designed to bleed, and what is clear for the reader to focus on. The less mysterious the boundaries appear, the easier and more intentional you will feel when designing packaging layout.