You know the drill: “We want it to look amazing… but our budget is basically vibes.” One of those clients was actually a friend (yep, betrayal hits harder when it’s personal). He needed labels for his in-house juice range — 4 flavours — but wanted it to look good and cost absolutely nothing.
So here’s how I played it: took the “budget,” translated it into hours (spoiler: not many), and went full speed — zero overthinking, max efficiency.
First: Killed the dream of four separate labels and pitched one universal design. Minimalist not for style points — but because complexity eats time. (Saved 4x the effort.)
Second: Simple layout. One colour we know always slaps — white. Go-to type. No scrolling, just doing. Use what works. Minimal effort, still looks intentional.
Third: He didn’t need perfection — he needed proof it works. So I whipped up a handdrawn mockup instead of waiting on test prints from the printer.
The result? One clean, universal label printed on transparent sticker film. Flavour names handwritten later. Print cost = down. Shelf appeal = still cute.
Moral of the story: Low budget doesn’t have to mean low taste.Bonus lesson: Want to save a friendship? Maybe don’t work with friends 🤝