--- title: Packaging Design & Annual Report Design Agency | Gudu description: "Packaging design, annual reports and print collateral for Australian brands. Press-ready artwork, printer liaison, one team from concept to run." canonical: https://gudu.com.au/services/creative/print/ --- # Packaging design and annual reports for Australian brands Packaging, annual reports and print collateral, designed by the same team that runs your brand everywhere else. Artwork arrives press-ready, and we deal with the printer so you don't have to. **Proof** - [Southern Phone](https://gudu.com.au/southernphone/) — full-service partner since 2021, creative across the whole account - 98% client retention across the agency ## What you get - **Packaging design, from dieline to shelf.** Label and carton artwork built on accurate dielines, with stock, finish and print specs settled before anything goes to the printer. - **Annual report design.** We take your raw copy, financial tables and photography and turn them into a document people can actually read, delivered as both a print edition and an accessible digital PDF. - **Brochures, catalogues and sales collateral.** The same identity system as your website and campaigns, because the same designers make both. - **Signage and large-format graphics.** For offices, retail and events, set up correctly for wide-format printing so the artwork holds at ten metres and at arm's length. - **Stationery and the small stuff.** Business cards, letterheads, presentation folders, swing tags. Unglamorous, and the first thing a client holds. - **Press-ready files, properly finished.** CMYK conversion, Pantone matching where the brand calls for it, bleed, overprint checks and packaged PDF/X files a printer can run without a single query. - **Printer liaison.** We spec the job, brief the printer, check the proof and sign off the run. You get the finished boxes, not a folder of files and good luck. ## How we do it 1. **Scope the physical job first.** What is being printed, at what size, on what stock, in what quantity, by when. These answers set the print cost, so we settle them before design starts rather than discovering them at quote stage. 2. **Start from the brand, not a template.** If we built your identity, the print work extends it. If someone else did, we work from your guidelines and flag anything that won't survive ink on paper. 3. **Design in InDesign and Illustrator.** Packaging is built on the converter's actual dieline; reports are laid out on a proper grid using your real copy, so what you review is what will print. You get PDFs at each round, plus physical mockups for packaging, because a carton reads differently in your hand than on a screen. 4. **Prepress, done by us.** Colour conversion, Pantone breaks, bleed and safety margins, overprint and rich-black checks, then packaged press-ready PDF/X files. Prepress errors are the expensive kind; we don't outsource the checking. 5. **Manage the print run.** We brief the printer, review the proof against the approved artwork and sign off before the full run. If something is off at proof stage, we catch it there, where fixing it is cheap. ## Case study: Southern Phone Southern Phone has been a full-service Gudu partner since January 2021. What began as a single engagement now spans advertising, creative, technology and client services: one team producing the brand's work wherever it appears, in market and on paper. > "Their expert planning, creative thinking coupled with their excellent communication skills and on time execution with every results-driven campaign make it a pleasure to work with this team." — Jacqueline Jansse, Southern Phone [Read the Southern Phone case study](https://gudu.com.au/southernphone/) ## FAQ **How much does packaging design cost?** It depends on the number of SKUs, whether a dieline already exists and how much of the brand system is settled. A single label on an existing dieline is a small job; a range of cartons with structural work is not. Send us the products and quantities and we'll quote the actual job. The print run itself is billed by the printer, and we'll help you compare quotes. **How long does an annual report take?** Allow six to eight weeks from final copy to printed document, and longer if the copy is still moving. Design is rarely the bottleneck; sign-off and late financial changes are. We build the timeline backwards from your AGM or filing date and tell you the real last day changes can land without risking the print deadline. **Do you handle the printing itself, or just the artwork?** Both, your choice. Every job ships as press-ready PDF/X files you can take to any printer. Most clients have us manage the run as well: we spec the stock and finish, brief the printer, check the proof and sign off. If you have a printer you trust, we'll work with them directly. **What files do we own at the end?** Everything. Press-ready PDFs plus the packaged working files, fonts and links included, and the dielines for any packaging. The artwork is yours whether you reprint with us, with your own printer, or with another agency entirely. Nothing sits hostage on our server. **Can you work from our existing brand guidelines?** Yes, and we'd rather work from good ones than reinvent them. We follow your guidelines and flag the gaps print exposes. The usual ones: no Pantone breaks specified, or a palette that goes muddy in CMYK. If the guidelines need extending for print, we'll quote that as a defined piece of work rather than sliding into a quiet rebrand. **Do you work with businesses outside Sydney?** Yes. We design packaging, reports and collateral for brands in Sydney, Melbourne and across Australia. Proofs move as PDFs, mockups move by courier, and printed jobs are produced wherever it makes sense for the run, which is often closest to where the finished stock needs to land. ## Related services - [Creative](https://gudu.com.au/services/creative/) — up a level, all our creative services - [Brand identity](https://gudu.com.au/services/creative/identity/) — branding and identity systems the print work extends - [Graphic design](https://gudu.com.au/services/creative/design/) — campaign assets and presentations - [Copywriting](https://gudu.com.au/services/creative/copywriting/) — annual report and brochure copy written properly - [Out-of-home](https://gudu.com.au/services/advertising/ooh/) — billboards and out-of-home campaigns [Let's talk](https://gudu.com.au/contact/)