2026 Packaging Design Trends You Should Know

You're about to get trends that are

going to shape packaging design in 2026.

These aren't just what are winning

awards. It's not what's all over

Pinterest. I actually went and shopped

around the world. I spoke to agency

leaders and I collaborated with global

brands to bring you what's next in

packaging design.

If you're new to Packaging Unboxed, I'm

Matoss. I partner with some of the

world's most recognizable brands on

their packaging. And I'm here to tell

you how to turn all that complexity into

clear, practical insights that you can

use right now. So, let's get to the 2026

packaging design trends. The trend that

is slowly evolving right now in real

time and becoming a menace is small as

status. Portions are shrinking and so is

packaging. Between GLP-1 drugs like

Ombic and the inflation that nobody

wants to admit to, brands have two

choices. You're either going to shrink

the product and pray that nobody notices

or you can reframe that small as a flex.

Psychologically, small means constraint,

discipline, self-control. It makes

consumers feel like they can say no to

seconds or they don't have to eat the

whole bag. I eat the whole bag. So, if

it's a smaller bag, I'd probably feel

better about myself. You want to sell

that feeling. You want to sell that

feeling of self-control. The old move

was shrinkflation. The same box, same

price, less product. Angry customers.

You've seen the Tik Toks. The move in

2026 is portion perfect. One ritual, one

pact, one opening, one consumption. Why

you're going to see this? Instead of

charging the same for less, you're

actually able to charge more for less.

What? Yes. Charge more for less. The

smaller size becomes the flex. So, how

do you use this trend? You feature

smaller product as the hero. You build a

story around the size. Size matters and

small is king. All right. Trend number

two is the pouch paradox. This is

actually a two-parter. First, you've got

the fight against plastic. It's going to

lose in 2026. I hate to say it. If you

don't believe me, you can prove me wrong

in the comments, but

it's all about cost. Every trend report

I see out there right now is screaming

about eco materials, nextgen

innovations, and they're not wrong.

There's seaweed, mycelium, cellulose,

compostable plastics. All that stuff is

real and it's growing. But not for 90%

of the brands out there. Not today.

Here's what none of those reports wants

to admit. In 2026, plastic is actually

going to explode. Inflation pressure is

in the driver's seat. That means that

brands need to survive with margin. They

got to make money. Paperboard is more

expensive. Glass is heavy and it's going

to punish you on freight. Energy costs

are continuing to climb. And every CFO

right now is tasked with reducing cost

across the board. That means that

packaging is going to get hit first. So,

what happens now? We're going to get a

return of plastic, especially Santa

pouches, flexible non material films,

all that stuff. There's more innovations

in pouches right now, making it even

harder and harder for brands to say no

to plastic. As designers, our job here

is to make plastic feel more like a

luxury than cheap refill. Monomaterial

pouches are going to be recycled more

often, so choose monomaterial when you

can. The second part of this trend is

actually for that hypers sustainable

minority, the ones that can afford it.

You've got the brands that have got a

budget. They've got patience and they've

got a long-term story. For them,

material is the story because they can

afford it. And their supply chain is

flexible. Myelium cushions, pulp trays,

seaweed or algae based films,

regenerative fibers, agricultural waste,

all sorts of stuff. The door is open for

a lot of really cool things, especially

in beauty and fashion and gifting where

brands and consumers not only want to

pay extra to feel like they're holding

the future, but they can afford to

believe in a sustainability story. Both

of those are real in 2026. Smart brands

can actually do both. But instead of

pretending there's one magical material

that can save everything, you can use a

high low approach that can take you even

further. Combining those materials, you

spend a little bit more on the primary

and then a little bit less on plastic

that can be a refill. Or what else can

you do? How else can you provide that

sustainability story for that consumer

regardless of price point? Now, I love

finding new materials out there. If

you've got one that you think I should

look at, throw it in the comments. One

that I really like that I think is

really cool is called Time Plast. These

guys have a I this plastic is like from

the future and I am not a plastic sales

guy, but this thing is pretty cool. They

can actually program it for a number of

days, months, years of when it's

actually going to begin to degrade. So

it can start degrading in 9 days, 3

hours, 2 years, 6 months, 6 months, 2

days, 3 hours, whatever that is. At that

point from when it's been produced, it

begin breaking down. How do you tie that

into your marketing message and how do

you create some kind of cool packaging

that tells that story? Trend number

three is human chaos. Designers are

fighting against AI, which you know, I

get it. But this trend I call human

chaos because it's our last uprising as

designers and somebody that's embraced

AI. I love it. I use it. It's fun to

play with. It fills in little gaps here

and there, but it's not the entire

design. And if you've seen entire

designs, if you've seen commercials and

you can tell that that person is

instantly an AI character with an AI

voice and they've tried to blend it in

to make it look like it's real, and you

know it's not. That's the big thing.

Every design tool out there right now is

defaulting to the same look. Whether

it's Nanobanana in Photoshop or Canva

and its AI companion, everything has

perfect gradients, perfect symmetry, and

generic humans that just don't exist. So

no matter what it is, consumers all feel

it when it's not real. They lack trust.

In response to that, we're seeing human

chaos starting to show up. You're seeing

handcrolled type markup notes on

packaging, graffiti, tagging, ugly on

purpose, misregistration, textured

varnish that look like it's been run

down. These are all details that make

you feel versus ask if it was a prompt,

if it was AI. makes you feel like

something was touched by human hands and

maybe they didn't do great, but it's

enough to make you question and ask and

make a connection. It's a little less

Gen Z and a little bit more Gen X punk.

Skate graphics, bestine, Xerox

transfers. If you don't know what that

is, Google that. Sticker bomb layouts,

Zen aesthetics, mixtape handwriting. The

question is, how do you create human

chaos without really making a mess? As

you can see in some of these packages,

they've kept the underlying structure

minimal. And then they've injected chaos

into the typography, the illustrations,

but not into the information hierarchy.

They've kind of kept that simple. You

want to keep your chaos confined.

Consumers are nostalgic for connection,

not necessarily for the graphics. They

don't want to see craziness everywhere

that where they can't tell what they're

buying. Trend number four is pack as

artifact. This might be my favorite

trend coming up. It's the one that I use

the most in my everyday packaging. all

about structure, all about form, less

about graphics. How do you tell a story

with shape, materials, and tactility?

But I also think it's the one that most

designers are going to be afraid to use

until it's been fully vetted and

mainstreamed. What we're seeing is

bottles, boxes, and tins that behave

like sculpture. They're fluid,

crystalline, biomimetic shapes that feel

like art. On top of that, you've got

display drama packs designed to stack,

interlocked, and build many

installations at retail. They completely

break the shelf and they stand out

against the shapes that you've shopped

your whole life. I've got to give it up

to Naked. These guys, I think this is

where it really started years ago for

forms that were not made out of paper

board. They made this chubby meat skin

like pack that if you're watching this

on YouTube, you can see these images.

It's a little disturbing. It's enough to

stop you in your tracks when you're

looking on shelf and everything else is

in a can or a container like a jar and

you've got this thing that looks like

somebody cut off their back fat and

stuck a lid on it. And now we're finally

seeing it hit the stride of mainstream.

Here's what's hitting the shelves today.

Truffus Gemstone Cap. It's one of the

OGs of the space as well. They took a

commodity like oil and they turned it

into a luxury product that's worth 3X

their competitors MSRP Lancomeme. This

looks like a beauty device with liquid

architecture. It commands a premium.

Secrets totems. The shape of the lids,

the texture like carved stone. Even

though they didn't originate this

design, they've made it mainstream.

You're seeing it more and more

frequently. And I think this is

something you should definitely lean

into for 2026. Just work with the right

manufacturer that knows how to do these

things because working with the wrong

one is going to cost you a lot and maybe

cost you the job. For the moment, these

artifacts do get kept. They provide

status and they get remembered.

Everything else is kind of beige noise.

I know a lot of people that have secret

shampoo bottles in their shower right

now, but they're just refilling with

like Kirkland because it's kind of cool

looking. They don't want the big giant

Kirkland jug, but they like the secret

bottle. If you're working on paperboard

packaging and you can't create these

curves, don't worry about it. Folds are

really important, too. Take inspiration

from origami. Push your manufacturer on

what is possible and lean into molded

fiber. You combine those two. And if

you're designing 2D only in 2026, you're

going to be leaving a stupid amount of

money on the table. Tren number five is

all about color. It is chemi color.

We've seen the bold color blocking,

contrast, neons, juicy gradients,

everything screaming fun at the top of

your lungs. But in 2026, it doesn't go

away. It just grows up a little bit. It

matures. And if you're going to

weaponize color in 2026, your packaging

is going to have to be chemically loud,

commercially engineered, and it's got to

be impossible to ignore. So, think

radioactive purples printing that

replaces old CMYK with new mix of

colors. What does that mean? I talk

about this all the time, and people ask

me like, "How do you even do that?" So,

everything you see on shelf right now

that's fourcolor process is cyan,

magenta, yellow, and black. No news

there. But you can change you can change

these on the actual press. You can pick

different colors. Go through your panone

book. Pick any one of these and replace

it. You can pick a bright bold blue to

replace your cyan at the minimum. This

is pretty standard. You can instead of

using magenta, you can use rubine red.

Ask your printer, replace my magenta

with rubine red. See what that looks

like. Your yellow, maybe go with like a

screaming neon orange. A neon yellow

that's going to fade. So that's going to

screw up your print after a couple of

months of actually being on shelf. But

like an orange has enough volume to hold

the color there. Your black, you're

stuck with black. Black is black. But

what you can do is instead of using a

black, you could use a metallic silver

to blend in there. If your print doesn't

have a lot of black if it's really

bright colors and you know, whatever the

imagery is, there's not a lot of black

in there. You can then replace it with

anything else you want. So you could do

a silver, you could do like a a deep

navy, maybe a purple, depending on which

way your graphics lean. That's how you

add more color. That's how you more with

less. still fourcolor process, but it's

not fourcolor process. You can use neons

on bold backgrounds. You can use hyper

gradients that are going to melt your

eyeballs. These are things that you want

to do because shoppers scan. They're

walking down the aisle. You got to blast

them with flavor cues, product

personality. It's got to be able to

disrupt them and pull them out of their

phone. Right? When you're walking down

the aisle, I know when I'm walking down

the aisle, I've either got like a recipe

or a list or somebody's texting me. I'm

looking at what's happening here and I'm

trying to shop what's up here. So, if

what's up here is bright enough and

exciting enough that's pulling me out of

this. That's what you want. You want to

be able to draw people into your pack.

If you look, for example, at the kitchen

gadget aisle, everything in there is

gray. What's great is look at Zoku. This

is fun. It's bright. I want to have fun.

I want to get this. Color is going to

help packaging stand out. And most

importantly, it's going to communicate

clearly and it's going to make the right

product stoppable at 6 feet while

somebody's scrolling on their phone. Got

to pick one dominant color. Pair it with

a simple typography for legibility. Use

gradients with purpose. Designed to be

read at six feet, not two. And in this

case, color is action, not emotion. All

right, we got trend number six, soft

armor. Think of metallics getting

friendly. Think of the Terminator as a

Care Bear. This isn't a random trend

that was picked up from scrolling

through all the AI slop on Pinterest.

Everywhere that I went looking for

packaging, I highlighted this shift.

It's quietly happening across beauty,

hair, and body. It's even on some food,

candy, toys. So, it is happening

everywhere. These are rounded, softened

silhouettes that target a more mature

audience. Frosted metallics, hybrid

finishes, holographic accents, no hard

edges, soft touch coatings over sharp

finishes that look like a response to

some of these other bold, young trends.

This is the opposite of human chaos. It

is like controlled energy. Human chaos

is a little bit messy. It's raw. Soft

armor is controlled. It's silky. It's

futuristic. and it's friendly. And I'm

going to add that packaging in soft

armor tended to be priced 30 to 40%

higher than its competitors on shelf.

This might be the biggest trend coming

right now because after years of

blanding, consumers are subconsciously

craving calm finishes, rounded shape

that mimic the tech in your pocket.

Beauty is copying the trust language of

consumer electronics. Think of all the

stuff in your house that you trust and

then think about the products on your

shelf in your bathroom. Like now they're

trying to make this connection as more

beauty products tend to lean into

hardware. You've got like the red light

masks, you've got, you know, the

scrubbers. You've got all these

different things that are tech driven

that have a trust language. And it's

actually taking money away from some of

these beauty products. So now beauty

products have to compete with actual

tech. So they've got to make their

products feel like tech. As more of

these skin here brands kind of move into

actual hardware, beauty products have to

feel like hardware to stay relevant.

Trend number seven, regulation ready.

This is packaging's sexiest trend in

2026. It's the one that no designer is

going to want to admit they suck at.

Keeping it legal. Tariffs are shifting

daily. EPR fees are coming online. EDR

is tracing every single trees location

on Earth. And California's SB54 is about

to force redesigns on half of the

plastic Santa pouches in the US.

Regulation ready packaging is the one

trend that you've got to jump on or

you're going to face the consequences.

Designers who understand regulations

won't just make better packaging.

They're the only ones whose designs are

actually going to make it to shelf.

Here's what's going to happen if you

don't. You're going to design something

beautiful. Your client's going to

approve it. They're going to love it.

The manufacturer is going to go back to

them and say, "Yeah, well, you can't

legally make this." Or, "This design is

going to cost you three times more than

you thought because your designer didn't

consider the extra cost of the design,

like extra cost for material tariffs,

anti-dumping duties, EPR fees, EUDR,

non-compliance fines. All that stuff can

cost more than the packaging if you

don't consider it from the start. Your

design won't hit retail and you're going

to look like you didn't even understand

the assignment, like you don't know what

you're doing. Regulation ready design is

your new competitive advantage.

Designers who know how SP54 restricts

multi-layer plastics. How EUDR requires

exact fiber geoloccation. How EPR fees

add cost to oversized and unrecyclable

formats. How tariffs force material and

sourcing shifts. Those designers won't

just get to create packaging. They're

going to futureproof the brands they

work with. So if you want to win in

2026, your creativity has to be able to

survive legal review, manufacturing

realities, regional compliance, and

economics. It's not about the Predis

design anymore or how you can use the

same type face that everybody else is

using. It's about having the right tools

to grow brands in a tight market. And it

doesn't get tighter than this.

We're doing a hidden track today and

this is trend number eight, lab grade.

While everybody else is going colorful

and fun and glowing and doing all these

crazy stuff, this growing trend makes

you look like a lab sample or a

prototype kind of early days off-white

when they were still inspired by Alisa

Van Julen. Stark white gunmetal blacks,

unemotional typography, but real type

stacked tight blunt microcopy

everywhere, activives, percentages,

clinical claims. You want your beauty to

feel like a prescription. your pouches

that give exhibit A and boxes that feel

like prototypes unfinished. This may be

an early reaction to those vibe only

packs where bland bold sells everything.

Consumers no longer want that. They want

hard proof. The matter of fact

presentation that's going to make

consumers feel like the research has

been done, the research is valid, like

they can trust this brand. If you're

going to look this clinical, your claims

have to be bulletproof. No softball

marketing, no greenwashing, none of

that. None of those claims allowed. If

you want to add a human moment to this

pack, fine. But you're only allowed one.

A foil stamp in silver or matte gray. A

spot UV over type. A deboss. No emboss.

That's too much. Just make sure that

your grid functions and that you've

studied modular layouts because it's

going to have to change per size, but

still has to feel the same. There are

two truths about every single trend out

there that nobody ever says out loud.

One, trends, they look cool. Yes,

they're gonna fill endless pages of

Pinterest. And yes, we and I mean we, me

as well, we all kind of feel like we're

missing out for not using them because

it's fun. It's easy. Somebody has

already done all the research.

Somebody's already been brave enough to

put that design out in the world, in the

market, and it's triggered something in

consumers and it's grown a brand. Now,

all you've got to do is follow their

road map, put your colors in the same

place, put your type, use the same type

face, use the same imagery. It's kind of

a layout map. It's a lot of fun. You

don't have to do any of the research and

you're not taking any of the chances,

but it's fun. It's play. That's fine.

but it's likely not what's best for the

customer. It's likely not what's best

for your client. The second truth is

that if you're following packaging

trends, you're already too late. It

takes months, sometimes a year, maybe

two, to get packaging from your screen

to the shelf. But anything that you

chase today is going to be over. It's

going to be outdated and you're no

longer on trend. Some of what we covered

today is it's worth studying, but it's

not worth copying. Small ass status.

Consider how you're talking to that

customer, how you can make them feel

good about that choice. Pouch paradox.

Are you avoiding plastic to the cost of

your customer to the cost of their

budget? Can they afford a better

material to build their brand around?

Pack as artifact. Use it as a lens, not

a blueprint. Soft armor, maybe that's

just a limited edition moment, but you

don't have to build your whole brand

around it. Regulations, not a trend, but

it is going to change packaging 2026.

So, get fluent in it. Lab grade, it's

been done before. It's being done again.

If you miss it, it'll be back in four

years. Chem color, it's fun. see where

that energy level fits. Human chaos,

punk speaks to me, but nostalgia doesn't

build brands. It just doesn't it doesn't

quite hit as hard the second time

around. And the point of this video is

to show you the things that are

happening in 2026, not necessarily the

things that you should follow. You

should also be able to learn how to spot

these trends, how to take the time to go

look on shelf. And if you can't travel,

that's no problem. Go to different types

of stores. Go to makeup stores. Go to

tech stores. Go to your Best Buy. Go to

Sephora. Go to Ulta. Go to your grocery

store. Go to your local market. Look at

what's on shelf in different price

points. Take pictures of everything.

Catalog it. And you're going to start

seeing these trends popping up every

single time you go to the store. Doesn't

take much. It's easy to do.

And that way, you're not counting on

what packaging is winning an award and

why you feel like maybe your packaging

should follow that. because hopefully

you'll win an award. The best award is

growing a client's brand. That's why

they come back to you. That's why they

pay you to design packaging again, not

to win an award. Awards don't sell

product. Great packaging isn't built by

trend chasers. Great packaging usually

doesn't even win any awards, but it's

built by people that know when to tap

into the moment or when to ignore it.

Your goal is to build brands, not chase

trends. Check out last year's trends

here and see if we were right. Drop a

comment below and let me know what

trends I might have missed. My name is

Mattos and this this is Unboxed.