Packaging Design

Wake up and grab the toothpaste, mouthwash, or shampoo. That’s the first of many encounters you'll have with packaging design each day. Large and small brands sell tens of millions of products around the world, and branding and packaging design are the key to every purchase.

The packaging design industry is expansive, global, and multifaceted, offering unlimited opportunity. In connecting brands to consumers, it fuses strategic thinking, innovation, technology, sustainability, consumer psychology, marketing, and design. You’ll graduate from FIT’s Packaging Design BFA program — the only one in the country — with a vast professional network and a competitive portfolio.

You’ll learn the critical thinking skills needed for brand and design strategy, and apply them to complex issues from sustainability to e-commerce to mega-trends. You will gain experience through a required internship and graduate with a highly focused experience and a portfolio of work.

To be eligible to apply to the Packaging Design BFA, you will need a Communication Design Foundation AAS degree or the equivalent. Learn more about eligibility for this program.

Degree Details

Our innovative design solutions capture consumer attention — they differentiate brands to help them to stand out among competitors, convey a compelling narrative, and create memorable brand experiences.

"Pawsonality" by Mateus Viera, Packaging Design ’24

Mateus Veira, Packaging Design '24, created a pup-inspired senior project for the Graduating Student Exhibition.

Alumni working at PepsiCo reflect on the brand’s innovative stance and explain how the role of packaging designer is evolving and expanding.

Harrison Shaw, Packaging Design '23, designed the packaging for Tagged Brewing Co. Inspired by the Bushwick (art) Collective in Brooklyn, each can "pushes the creative boundaries and adds an artistic edge to the beer space..." says The Dieline.

Martin Menke ’12 came back came back to FIT to study Packaging Design after getting his Advertising Design degree in 1991. His watch brand, Hemel, offers historically inspired timepieces with timeless style.

Sara Griffin and Shan Khan (both class of '16) placed first and second, respectively, in an international competition to create a gift box and label for a magnum of Pol Roger Brut Vintage 2006 champagne, a brand enjoyed by Sir Winston Churchill.

Michelle Kim, Ashley Markiewicz, Valeria Bornacelli and Margaret Seleznev (all class of ’21) won third place in the PPA 2020 Student Design Challenge, from among over 50 entries from eight universities. The PPA (Paperboard Packaging Alliance) challenges students in leading packaging design programs in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico to demonstrate their design skills, innovative capacity, and marketing savvy in meeting real-world customer needs.

2021 FIT graduating student exhibition packaging design

Students create portfolios representing strategic designs for a wide range of consumer product categories—personal care and beauty, food and beverage, and technology and electronics, as well as for businesses such as retail markets, distilleries, and more. See the full 2021 Graduating Student Exhibition.

View student work and hear Sandra Krasovec, professor and program coordinator, describe the role of Packaging Design graduates in the marketplace.

Think outside the box and around the world … With an enormous influence on consumers’ purchasing decisions across the globe, our designs have a critical impact on the bottom line of nearly every company and brand.

Everything we design is used in almost every facet of daily life. Being a brand and packaging designer lets me engage with consumers emotionally as well as visually.

Jay KimPackaging Design ’21

Students intern at large and small design agencies and at consumer product companies. Our graduates have also gone on to work at Avon, Bath & Body Works, bareMinerals, Colgate-Palmolive, Coty, Godiva, LEGO, Pepsi, and many others. Their roles include agency owners and principals, creative directors, art directors, strategists, brand designers, production managers, and user experience designers.

Beyond Graduation

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Our faculty of leading design practitioners, who own agencies, serve as industry jurors, and work for consumer packaged goods companies, are supportive mentors who connect you with industry. Meet more Packaging Design faculty.

Marianne Rosner Klimchuk

For more than 20 years, Klimchuk developed and led the Packaging Design program. As founder and principal of the design strategy advisory firm DesignPracticum, she works with companies on integrating design thinking, strategy, and best practices in the consumer brand packaging design sector.

Sandra Krasovec

Krasovec has helped build the Packaging Design program for more than two decades, instrumental in developing curriculum as an advocate for sustainability and best practices. She has over 25 years of experience in branding and packaging design for major brands as Design Director of a Chicago-based firm, started for her own design studio, and now continues to consult with companies and entrepreneurs in developing brand and design strategy for consumer products..

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