Packaging
Design &
Retail
POS Design

Packaging is often the most tangible expression of a brand—the moment an identity becomes something a customer can hold, open, use, display or take home.

Ludbrook Agency is a Sydney-based branding and design studio creating packaging, retail point-of-sale, print and physical brand applications. Our work spans wellness and beauty, hotels and hospitality, lifestyle brands, food and beverage.

We work across packaging strategy, visual design, range architecture, materials, print finishes, production and retail presentation. Each project considers how a product communicates on its own and as part of a wider brand identity—on a shelf, online, in a restaurant or hotel, within a retail environment or in the customer’s hands.

Our packaging experience includes established Australian brands and new ventures such as In Essence, Le Tan, OPTY.NC, Aura Rosé, Barons Brewing and Jervis Bay Distilling.

The purpose is not simply to make a package look considered. Good packaging helps people identify the product, understand the range and recognise the brand before they begin reading the detail.

Packaging has several jobs to do at once. It must identify the product, communicate its purpose, express the brand’s position and work within the practical constraints of production, transport, display and use.

We design primary and secondary packaging for beauty, skincare, wellness, supplements, food, beverage, wine, spirits and lifestyle products. A project may involve one hero product or an extensive range requiring a clear hierarchy across variants, formats and product families.

Typography, colour, imagery and material choices establish character, but information architecture is equally important. Customers need to distinguish product types, benefits, sizes or flavours quickly. Regulatory content must remain legible without taking control of the design. The package must also work in photography, ecommerce, social content and retail display, where it may be viewed at a very different scale.

For established brands such as Le Tan and In Essence, the task was to evolve the packaging without discarding recognition built over many years. For a new product, packaging may be developed alongside brand strategy and positioning, naming, identity, photography and launch communications from the beginning.

A packaging idea is only successful if it survives production and performs in the customer’s hands.

Depending on the project, we work with clients, printers and specialist suppliers across structural packaging, material selection, prototypes, print processes, finishes and production artwork. We consider how a format will be filled, handled, transported, stored, opened and disposed of—not only how it appears in a presentation.

Material and finish choices can give a product character without relying on unnecessary decoration. For Aura Rosé, illustration, paper stock and gold foiling became part of the wine’s expression. For Barons Brewing, a flexible illustration and colour system allowed individual beers to be distinguished while remaining recognisable as one family.

Range architecture becomes particularly important when a brand has multiple products, benefits or formats. Our work for OPTY.NC included a scalable product system that could organise complex wellness information without losing the confidence and visual clarity expected within premium beauty.

Innovation does not always mean adding more. It can mean reducing material, simplifying a format, improving navigation or finding a production method that achieves a stronger result with fewer processes.

Once a product enters a retail environment, the packaging no longer works alone.

Retail point-of-sale needs to attract attention from a distance, explain the product at close range and help customers compare options without overwhelming the display. The appropriate response depends on the setting: a pharmacy, department store, specialist retailer, hotel boutique and temporary launch installation each create different patterns of movement and attention.

We design countertop units, product displays, promotional graphics, launch material, testers, signage, display cards and campaign applications. Packaging establishes recognition; POS provides the additional information or emphasis needed to support a decision.

For In Essence, packaging, photography and retail POS were developed as one connected system. The display environment reinforced the sensorial character of the aromatherapy brand while making a broad product range easier to understand. Le Tan similarly required the refreshed identity to work across packs, retail display and supporting marketing material.

Where a launch requires a wider set of campaign assets, our campaign creative and content creation work connects packaging and POS with photography, social content and advertising rather than treating each as a separate exercise.

Not every physical brand touchpoint is packaging.

Stationery, brochures, presentations, invitations, menus, editorial publications and promotional material all contribute to recognition. Their value comes from consistency of thinking rather than identical laeyouts.

Our experience across brand identity, typography, editorial design, photography and production allows these pieces to be developed as parts of one system. A sales document has a different purpose from an invitation. A restaurant menu needs a different rhythm from a corporate presentation. The identity should remain recognisable while the structure responds to how each item is read and used.

For brands with many customer and staff touchpoints, a considered collateral system can be as important as the logo. Templates and production rules also make recurring material easier to prepare without gradually losing consistency.

Tatler Supper Club demonstrates how print can contribute to the character of a venue. Menus, coasters, event invitations, signage and smaller branded details supported the same confident, slightly theatrical identity without every item repeating the same composition.

Guests encounter a hospitality brand repeatedly—before arrival, at the entrance, at the table, in their room and sometimes through an object they take away.

We design menus, spa menus, in-room collateral, minibar material, turndown pieces, guest information, takeaway packaging, gifting and other branded details for hotels, restaurants, bars, spas and wellness destinations. Each item has a practical purpose, but together they influence how considered and coherent the experience feels.

Consistency does not require repetition. A room card, dinner menu and gift box should belong to the same place, but each needs to respond to its setting, material and use. This is where packaging and collateral connect naturally with our work in hospitality branding and brand environments, signage and wayfinding.

For Saigon Street, the identity extended across menus, takeaway packaging, signage, wayfinding and restaurant collateral. These applications allowed the brand to become part of the colour and energy of the venue rather than remaining confined to the logo.

Tatler Supper Club required a different response. Its menus, coasters, invitations and event material drew on the established personality of a late-night Darlinghurst venue with its own history and loyal audience.

Merchandise can carry a brand beyond the immediate transaction or visit.

We develop uniforms, gifting, bags, accessories, branded objects and retail products for hospitality, wellness, lifestyle and consumer brands. The strongest examples have a reason to exist beyond displaying a logo. They may be useful, collectable, connected to a place or capable of expressing an aspect of the brand that conventional communications cannot.

Material, colour, form, packaging and context all affect how the object is perceived. A hotel gift, staff uniform and spirits accessory each requires a different balance between visibility and restraint.

For Jervis Bay Distilling, bottle design, merchandise, signage and campaign imagery were conceived as parts of one coastal brand world. The identity could move from the bottle to a venue, event or object without losing its relaxed Australian character.

This approach is particularly relevant to lifestyle brands, where the object itself may become an important way for customers to participate in and share the brand.

Beauty and wellness products often need to communicate purpose, ingredients, efficacy and product difference within a very limited area.

The packaging must establish trust without becoming clinical, and express character without making important information difficult to find. In larger ranges, customers should be able to recognise the brand, distinguish one product from another and understand how the products relate.

Our wellness branding work includes aromatherapy packaging and retail POS for In Essence, ingestible beauty supplement packaging for OPTY.NC, suncare and skincare packaging for Le Tan, and the development of a botanical skincare and retail brand for Enfants Paradis.

Each project required a different balance. In Essence needed to retain the trust attached to more than 40 years of heritage while developing a more contemporary expression of sensory wellness. OPTY.NC needed the authority of a science-led supplement and the refinement of a premium beauty brand. Enfants Paradis required packaging to connect botanical skincare with travel and lifestyle.

In each case, packaging was treated as part of the complete brand experience—connected to positioning, identity, photography, ecommerce and retail presentation.

Food and beverage packaging frequently has only a few seconds to communicate from a shelf, bar, table or takeaway counter.

It must identify the product quickly, create recognition at a distance and reward closer inspection. It also needs to remain legible under very different conditions: chilled cabinets, bottle-shop shelves, hospitality venues, event settings, ecommerce pages and social photography.

Our work includes wine branding and label design for Aura Rosé, craft beer packaging for Barons Brewing, bottle design and spirits packaging for Jervis Bay Distilling, and restaurant takeaway packaging for Saigon Street.

These projects operate in different categories, but each required a clear relationship between product and place. Aura Rosé used illustration and finish to create a more distinctive presence within Australian wine. Barons Brewing used a flexible visual system to bring character to individual beers while holding the range together. Jervis Bay Distilling drew on the landscape and pace of the NSW South Coast without relying on predictable coastal imagery.

For hospitality businesses, packaging can also extend the guest experience beyond the venue. Takeaway packs, bottled products, gifting and retail lines allow a restaurant, hotel or bar to enter the customer’s home while remaining recognisably connected to the original experience.

Every packaging project begins with context rather than decoration.

We consider the audience, competitive category, price position, retail environment, product range and production requirements before design begins. For an established brand, this includes identifying which assets hold recognition and which parts of the current system create confusion. For a new product, packaging may be developed alongside brand strategy, naming and visual identity.

The next stage establishes the principles that need to work across the complete range: information hierarchy, typography, colour, imagery, materials, regulatory content and product differentiation. Concepts are tested across relevant formats rather than judged as isolated front panels.

Production is considered throughout. We prepare artwork, review specifications and proofs, and work with printers, packaging manufacturers or specialist suppliers as required. Where structural engineering or manufacturing expertise sits outside our role, we collaborate with the appropriate production partner while retaining oversight of the identity and graphic outcome.

A useful packaging system should accommodate change. New products, sizes, variants and markets should be able to enter the range without forcing the brand to start again. That capacity to grow is one of the clearest differences between designing an individual package and building a packaging system.