As the year draws to a close, we’re looking forward to the new packaging design trends that 2021 has in store for us. At first glance, they look pretty different from each other—you’ve got simple geometry right alongside super-detailed ink drawings and fleshed-out characters. But there’s actually a cohesive theme here, and that’s a pivot away from packaging design that immediately reads as “commercial” and toward packaging that feels like art.

This year, we saw just how critical ecommerce is to our everyday lives. That’s not changing anytime soon. With ecommerce, you lose the experience of walking through a store and experiencing a curated brand ambience, something even the most immersive website can’t compensate for. So packaging designers and business owners are upping the ante to deliver a piece of branding right to your door.

The goal isn’t to replace the in-store experience, but to meet consumers where they are now and where they’ll be in the future. It’s all about creating a new, more immersive brand experience through the unique packaging trends of 2021.

Here are the biggest packaging design trends for 2021:

1. Tiny illustrated patterns that reveal what’s inside
2. Authentically vintage unboxing experience
3. Hyper-simplistic geometry
4. Packaging dressed in fine art
5. Technical and anatomical ink drawings
6. Organically shaped color blocking
7. Product names front and center
8. Picture-perfect symmetry
9. Story-driven packaging featuring quirky characters
10. Solid all-over color