13 Bakery Packaging Ideas to Bring Smiles to Hungry Customers

Cute and useful packaging is part of the experience of buying bakery products, and this article is here to help you find inspiration for your own.

I don’t know about you, but I am always craving a good bakery product. Coming from a family of amazing bakers, I always appreciate the craftsmanship, patience and precision baking takes. But one thing that always amazes me even more, is when I see baked goods packed in cute boxes and bags.

Packaging is an important part of bakery branding, not only because it has the branding design printed on it, but also because it is supposed to help customers transport the fine goods in a way that will keep them intact, and also impress others who are gifted with sweet treats. Just think about the difference between getting a cupcake that is well packed and decorated, and one that’s just sold in simple plastic bags.

So, what we’ve established so far is that bakery packaging needs to be:

• pretty
• utilitarian
• infused with the bakery’s branding.

With these factors in mind, let’s go through some of the best packaging we’ve found and curated, to inspire your food packaging projects.

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1. Croissant Café & Bakery: Customization of simple paper bags

This bakery business uses not-too-fancy packaging supplies but manages to customize them and infuse the unique, colorful brand in a simple and economically efficient way: by adding stickers to the kraft paper bags. The overall branding of this Canadian bakery is hip and youthful, and the pastel colors only elevate that look.

Design by Cather x

Design by Danh Tùng Tạ, Sơn Tùng and DESIGN STUDI- ONLINE

Design by Olena Fedorova

Design by Lia Griffith

Design by Widarto Impact

Design by Thinking Room

The gift envelopes have a little something that makes them special: a piece of paper that is put in shows a little whisk through the little window. But, take it out and it looks like the illustrated character is holding a balloon!

Design by Puncture Design

Design by Heavy .

Design by Whitney Clark

Design by Borondo. Studio and Juan Jose Montes

Design by Emir Kudic

Design by Ceren Burcu Turkan

Design by Dave Arustamyan

2. 45th Avenue: unique patterns

This extravagant and luscious branding for a bakery named 45th Avenue got equally elegant packaging designs. The Art Deco logo is applied on all assets, such as shopping bags, bakery boxes, as well as wrapping tissue paper for the bread. You can see a ubiquitous pattern of a city skyline—the view that once was on 45th Avenue perhaps? The old houses and roofs make an intricate design, that lends these packaging items a unique impression.

3. Bakelove: using the most of simple materials

Quite often you’ll hear that the secret ingredient in good baking is love, and this bakery infused love not only in its products but in the branding design too. The cute bakery logo shows streaks of whey and a heart. These two symbols are infused in the paper used for bread bags and custom mailers, and they make a beautiful pattern. The lovely colors used in the branding are contemporary, yet elegant, and the reusable wooden pegs used to close off the bags instead of plastic are a nice touch for eco-friendly customers to enjoy.

4. Dough Dealer: distinctive brand image

I know that this article is about bakery packaging, not names, but kudos to whoever thought of this creative name and unusual concept. Apart from selling already baked goods, Dough Dealer… deals bakery supplies in the right measurements.

In the era of the DIY craze, people love using products that are supposed to be created by them but take away the harder steps. So, Dough Dealer is, in a way, the Ikea of bakeries.

The logo is both a loaf of bread and the eyes of a “shady but fun dealer, an outlaw behind his speakeasy-like security door”. Truthful to the brand image inspired, the make-it-yourself kits are packed in unusual bags and bottles, some of which include recipes for making your own bread.

5. Lolli & Pops: rich packaging for rich sweets

Although not just a bakery, but a retailer of specialty confections, sweets, chocolates and packaged treats from around the world, Lolli & Pops has packaging suitable for baked goods as well. The elegant macaron boxes and cookie boxes in gentle pastels make for a perfect sweet surprise. If you’re like me and don’t want to ruin the perfect wrapping, fret not—you can pull out the gift boxes like drawers!

The brand also uses tin cans for some of their specialty chocolates, as well as elegant jars for candies such as gummy bears.

6. Persephone: intricate illustrations

Rarely does a packaging design include so many hand-drawn, intricate illustrations, as does the Persephone bakery from Wyoming. Nested in a forest area, it is only natural that this local bakery wanted to include the woodland animals and flora around them, and they weren’t wrong. Every drawing on this packaging and every little item looks like a work of art. If it was me, I’d take them all straight to the checkout!

They even included custom envelopes and paper form writing a letter for special occasions, or in case you are gifting something from their bakery.

7. Brodflour: practical takeout containers

If your bakery (or your client’s bakery!) sells breakfast pastries or sandwiches, chances are customers buy them to eat them immediately. A very useful thing to do would be to turn your packaging into takeout containers that will be useful to them, so they don’t have to use extra dishes if they’re on the way.

The Brodflour sandwich boxes are perfectly useful since they can also be used as pull out boxes.

8. Balloon & Whisk: the cutest bakery packaging you’ve seen

Yes, packaging products should be disposable, but if I were to get something from Balloon & Whisk, I’d turn into a hoarder. To follow Marie Kondo’s maxima, yes, they do bring joy!

Different pastry boxes, containing different products like brownies, cookies and cakes, have a slightly different design, but they look like collectibles that you want to put together in one place.

9. Joie Bread Co: modern and practical

This modern bakery brand comes from Malaysia, and has a very uniform look throughout all the branding and marketing materials, like business cards and flyers. The uplifting and fresh turquoise color is a nice base for all the packaging products, and the dark-brown coffee color is a perfect combination for it. The coffee cups are a creative idea for coffee shop branding since they have useful compartments for your donut to go!

10. Pie boxes: cute DIY packaging

These pie slice boxes by designer and artist Lia Griffith can be a great source of inspiration. Using simple cardboard, she created an impressive and cute, as well as practical design. With the addition of an origami “whipped cream” and wavy-cut paper to visually create the crust, she made a simple solution into a unique design that you can borrow to pack your new products.

11. Galycky Strudel: traditional look for a traditional recipe

This bakery in Kyiv was based on an idea that values tradition and continuity in the identity of a city’s residents. Kyiv residents, as the graphic designer says, love to visit the ancient city of Lviv on holidays, go for a stroll in the city’s old streets that smell of coffee and fresh pastries. That’s how this bakery honoring the ones from Lviv came to be.

Lviv’s famous families had their own monograms, seals and ornaments, and the designer infused these elements in the visual identity. She highlighted the vintage look with brown colors, kraft paper, wax seals and twine.

12. Moon Bakery: origami cake box designs with a deeper meaning

These cake boxes were created for the Mid–Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, celebrated by many nations in the East-Asian region. It is the holiday when every member of the family gathers and enjoys the moonlight.

The most impressive of this hexagon box is the cover made of many parts weaving into each other. Every part of the cover represents a crescent moon and when the box is closed, the crescent moons create the full moon.

If that wasn’t enough to appreciate this design, there is an even deeper meaning: each of the six crescent moons is a member of the family—grandparents, parents, siblings, etc. When you see the full moon on the cover of the box, it represents the family union.

There are six different flavors represented in six different colors of the box and cake board.

13. Dulce Emma: cupcake boxes stamped with love

Dulce Emma, which translates into Sweet Emma, uses cute boxes for their equally cute cupcakes. The mascot logo featuring Sweet Emma is added with an old-school ink stamp. If you enjoy peeking into window cake boxes, such a design is great for you.