Fail to prepare, prepare to fail
Prototyping is an essential part of the packaging development process.
Whether a legacy brand updating packaging styles and formats or start-ups entering the market, it is a step not to be missed.
At London Packaging Week 2026, brands and retailers can see and experience the prototyping options available to them.
Packaging prototyping plays an important role in helping brands and retailers bring products to market successfully and cost-effectively.
By creating physical or, as is increasingly the case, 3D-rendered mock-ups before committing to full-scale production, brands and retailers can evaluate structural integrity, material choices, and visual design in real-world conditions.
Prototyping allows teams to test how packaging looks on a shelf next to competitors; how it protects the product during shipping and handling, and even how consumers physically interact with it.
Such insights are invaluable but are nearly impossible to gauge from drawings and renderings alone.
Prototyping also accelerates decision-making by giving stakeholders, from marketing to supply chain managers, a tangible reference point for feedback and approval. This reduces costly revisions later in the process.
For retailers, prototypes help ensure packaging meets specific shelving, display, and regulatory requirements before products ever arrive at stores.
That is why all should attend London Packaging Week 2026 to see and explore the options available to them.
Esko (E92) will be providing a comprehensive portfolio of tools that enable its customers to connect, automate, and accelerate the entire packaging go-to-market process.
Studio enables the design of labels in 3D to perfectly fit structural packaging designs. A patented print modelling technology uses the actual production assets, meaning 3D models and images are in sync with the printed packaging.
ArtiosCAD is structural design software that allows packaging teams to design virtual prototypes. By creating 3D packaging designs and resizing them to fit a product helps designers check the physical limitations of their creations, reducing manual processes and cuts down on mistakes and waste by allowing seamless inspection of 3D designs for inconsistencies.
Hybrid Brandz (D62) delivers innovative, enterprise-grade solutions for the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) industry and brand managers worldwide. Through Artflow, its artwork management solution, and iC3D, its rapid 3D packaging mock-up technology, Hybrid Brandz enables brands to streamline workflows, maintain brand consistency, and accelerate creative execution.
iC3D offers dynamic 3D modelling to create 3D models of bottles, boxes, pouches, and other packaging types from scratch or template libraries. Real-time ray tracing means 3D packaging designs are rendered with high-resolution photo studio lighting, accounting for materials, reflections and shadows. The patented Smart Mesh technology allows for seamless application of graphics, labels, and designs to 3D models, while Smart Shrink Wrap instantly visualises artwork on irregularly shaped products, such as perfume bottles, trigger sprays and moulded containers.
An important addition to the most recent iC3D update, v11, is the Capture 3D Analyzer, which is a tool designed to evaluate the repeatability of shrink sleeve and metal production processes. The analyser compares multiple shrink sleeves and metal cans and generates a heat map, which visually highlights inconsistencies in the process, helping to ensure consistent quality and set expectations right.
Dassault Systèmes (D64) has been a pioneer in computer-aided design since 1981 and has expanded into a diverse range of software categories, including 3D modelling and simulation.
Customers of Dassault Systèmes use its 3DEXPERIENCE platform to design and test ideas in the virtual world so they can better respond to today’s experience economy, where consumers value experiences over products. This is offered as an alternative to time-consuming and costly physical testing.
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform has afforded Metsä Board innovative 3D simulation capabilities from a central platform. Advanced packaging designs are simulated easily and validated quickly; designs are shared securely in the Cloud and then accessed from any device, allowing ad-hoc collaboration to occur, even when teams are geographically dispersed.
With concurrent engineering, delivered by a single platform, Metsä Board was able to reduce decision times and ensure faster recommendations and solutions to its customers.
For those wishing to experience physical prototypes, there are a number of options:
Revolution Digital (B36) is a supplier of printers for packaging proofing. The company offers solutions from the likes of Mutoh, Roland, and Truevis that support a range of finishes, from foiling to spot UV, and include advanced RIP software and precise colour management systems. These cutting-edge tools enable businesses to produce stunning packaging prototypes and short-run production in-house, on-demand, with exceptional quality.
Then there are manufacturing partners using these tools and technologies.
Falconer Print & Pack (F80) provides a full in-house mockup and proofing design service to customers. This incorporates CAD and surface design technology, complemented by a Mimaki digital proofer. This showcases tangible concepts prior to production.
The Smartcentre Innovation Hub is offered by the Sherwood Group (E84) as a way to efficiently and effectively bring concepts to life.
Smartcentre offers innovative and cutting-edge product sampling and prototyping services: 3D structural designs from concept to cutting forme, sampling and mock-ups, through production trials. Cradle-to-grave packaging audits and plastic use and PPT audits are also offered.
Blackwood Packaging (K62) provides premium packaging solutions, including rigid boxes, wooden boxes, leather boxes, tin boxes, glass bottles, ceramic bottles, steel bottles, aluminium bottles, labels, closures, gift bags, and POSM products.
The company operates with a full-service model, guiding projects from initial consultation, creative design, and prototyping, before mass production, quality assurance, logistics, and after-sales support.
Print finishing specialist PPF Solutions (H30) offers a mock-up service as a value-add tied to its foiling and stamping and embossing expertise. PPF’s mock-up development and production service creates an accurate final mock-up for evaluation, helping to manage risk and ultimately save time and money in the long run. This is specifically useful for brands testing how metallic, holographic, or textured decorative finishes will look and perform on final packaging.
The company also hosts webinars for its customers and their technical teams to share best practices and help optimise post-printing processes. This helps eliminate imperfections and increasing efficiency.
Ultimately, investing in prototyping services reduces financial risk, shortens time-to-market, and helps brands deliver a more polished, functional, and appealing product experience to consumers.
If you’re early in your packaging development process, head to London Packaging Week 2026 to connect and engage with those partners who can help you prepare for full-scale production; register here for London Packaging Week 2026.
London Packaging Week 2026 takes place 16 & 17 September at Excel London.
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