Dessert Packaging Design Development: Ice Cream Between Cookies: When a Simple Dessert Requires Highly Precise Presentation
There is one tricky thing about ice cream. If the product is straightforward, it seems that the packaging will be easy too. The buyer already knows what cookies, plombir, chocolate filling, and milk are. Yet, simple products get lost on the shelf just as often as complex ones. Sometimes even faster, because the brand assumes nothing needs to be explained.
The Nicee case study demonstrates a completely different approach. The images show sandwich ice cream: two round cookies with chocolate chips, plombir in between, and a vanilla-chocolate layer inside. The format is convenient, familiar, and very much “on the go.” You can grab it to go with your coffee, take it in the car, on a walk, after lunch, or simply because you saw it in the freezer and wanted it.
The design task here is not to invent a complex legend. On the contrary, it is to remove everything unnecessary and show the product at its most delicious moment. No long storytelling. Just let them feel it.
Understand the format in a second
Ice cream on a stick is read automatically. A cone is too. But a cookie sandwich needs to be presented in a way that makes a person immediately realize: this is not just a cookie, not a pastry, and not a candy bar. This is a cold dessert with cookies, a creamy filling, and a texture you want to bite into.
Therefore, the visual center of the packaging is occupied not by an abstract flavor, but by the product cut open. You can see the cookie, the layer of plombir, the chocolate part, and the structure of the edge. This perspective works better than any long phrase. The buyer sees exactly what is inside and quickly decides whether they want to try it.
At Red&Ko, we are well acquainted with situations like this involving similar products, where a client brings a strong recipe, but the packaging presents it too modestly. The product is genuinely delicious, but on the shelf, it looks like “just another one.” In Nicee’s case, this mistake was avoided: the dessert is brought into the main frame instead of being hidden beneath decorative elements.
How turquoise color holds the shelf
The turquoise background here is not just “pretty.” It is cold, clean, and summery, but without being sterile. For ice cream, this is a successful balance. The color provides a sense of coolness, while the warm hue of the cookie becomes even more appetizing against it.
In the freezer display, there is a lot of blue, white, chocolate, and red. Nicee’s turquoise stands out from the standard “milky” palette while remaining subtle. It creates a calm background against which the logo, the product, and the simple formula—milk plus cookies—are easily readable.
This is a case where developing a packaging design begins not with the question “what color do you like,” but with an understanding of where the product will live after printing. Freezer lighting alters shades, glass creates reflections, competitors stand nearby, and price tags might hang above. If the design withstands this reality, then it has a chance to work.
The product photo must work like a bite
In one of the frames, a hand dips the sandwich into a glass of milk. The filling stretches down slightly, the cookie looks dense, and the scene instantly transports the product from the freezer into a cozy home moment. This is no longer just an image for a catalog. This is a consumption situation.
This technique is especially useful for products that are bought impulsively. A person doesn’t spend five minutes analyzing the ingredients. They see the scene and recall their own experience: milk, cookies, a snack, summer, something sweet after a journey. At this level, it’s not logic that works, but appetite.
A standalone product against a clean turquoise background is also important. It provides the brand with ready-made material for digital use: banners, product cards, posts, and short promotional animations. The visual system does not fall apart when transitioning from the wrapper to an advertisement.
Packaging doesn’t end at the freezer
Today, a buyer might see a product for the first time on a smartphone screen rather than in a store—in stories, a short video, a banner, a delivery catalog, or on a marketplace. If the packaging only looks good from the front, it quickly loses its impact in real-world communication.
Nicee features a simple set of elements that are easy to replicate: the turquoise color, a large logo, a round sandwich, milk associations, and a clear cross-section of the product. Thanks to this, the brand can showcase the dessert in various situations without losing recognition.
In the photo with the car, the pack looks like a quick summer snack on the road. In the frame featuring the girl against the sky, the product is perceived as a light dessert for warm weather. In the kitchen scene with milk, it feels closer to a home ritual. Three different moods, but one single image.
For FMCG, this is a highly practical advantage. Creative advertising, social media, POS materials, and packaging all speak the same language, rather than looking like separate, random campaigns.
A simple product does not forgive excess noise
There is a temptation to add more: a badge about natural ingredients, another icon, a minor benefit, a wave, drops, textures, an extra slogan. Afterwards, the layout seems “richer,” but the core idea gets drowned out.
A sandwich ice cream does not require excessive explanation. It needs clarity. The buyer needs to see the cookie, the plombir, the chocolate part, the weight, the flavor, and the brand. Everything else should either help or stay quiet.
This is exactly where the complexity of product packaging creation lies. Good design doesn’t always add things. Often, on the contrary, it cuts away the excess to leave room for appetite.
When a business should think about packaging earlier
Sometimes a brand only remembers about design right before the launch. The recipe is approved, production is ready, the deadline is close, and the packaging is left with an “we’ll fix it somehow” attitude. For ice cream, this is a risky scenario, because the visual component can affect not only perception but also how the product is named, what is highlighted on the front, and which moment to show first.
If the format is non-standard for the category, it is better to involve designers earlier. In Nicee’s case, the product relies on a simple yet very distinct idea: cookies plus plombir. This formula needed to be preserved, not lost amidst texts and decor.
In such situations, ordering a packaging design means more than just getting a pretty file for print. It is about choosing the primary focus, testing the shelf presence, preparing visuals for digital platforms, and understanding how the product will behave in the hands of the consumer.
Key takeaways for launching a product in the “sandwich” category
- For sandwich ice cream, the first task is not to mask the format. If the product is made of cookies, this must be visible immediately. Not in the description in a tiny font, but in the main visual.
- The background color should assist the product, not compete with it. The turquoise in Nicee works because it enhances the feeling of cold while simultaneously making the cookie look warmer and more appetizing. Such decisions seem simple only after they have been correctly discovered.
- Packaging needs to be tested on more than just a pretty mockup. It must be readable in a freezer display, on a smartphone, in a photo held in a hand, in a promo banner, and against competitors. If the concept falls apart upon its very first transition to another format, it is better to redesign it before printing.
- And another point that is well known from practice at Red&Ko: the buyer does not buy the “design.” They buy the anticipation of taste. The task of Nicee’s packaging is precisely to make this anticipation arise quickly. Saw it. Understood it. Wanted to bite into it.
