What Is Artwork Management & How Is It Used in Packaging Workflows?

Artwork management is the process of making the development and proofing of product packaging and labels more efficient. Proper artwork management can reduce costs, improve project management, eliminate errors, and help you release products faster, among other benefits.

Artwork management can be a complex process. In this guide, we answer all of your burning questions about artwork management and give you the insight you need to improve your current packaging workflows.

Table of Contents

• What Is Artwork Management?
• How Does Artwork Management Work?
• The Benefits of Artwork Management
• The Role of Artwork Management in Packaging Workflows
• Using Mox for Effective Artwork Management

What Is Artwork Management?

Artwork management is the process of increasing efficiency when producing product packaging and labels. This improved efficiency results from combined efforts like phasing out manual processes and streamlining approval workflows.

Proper artwork management includes several steps, such as artwork development, proofing, and approval. The ultimate goal of artwork management is to ensure products launch with accurate, compliant, and compelling packaging labels, every time.

How Does Artwork Management Work?

The artwork management process you follow will depend on your business and requirements. However, at a high level, the modern-day artwork management process may look something like this:

1. Conceptualize packaging artwork and collect requirements.
2. Develop packaging artwork assets.
3. Upload packaging artwork to a management platform.
4. Make a workflow and assign key stakeholder roles.
5. Review and revise packaging artwork based on stakeholder feedback.
6. Approve and send to print finalized packaging artwork.

While many companies still follow these steps manually, true artwork management requires the reduction of tedious manual tasks. Artwork management software can be used to automate many of the steps in this process while keeping feedback and file versions in one centralized location.

The Benefits of Artwork Management

Proper artwork management is necessary for any business to launch a successful product. Here are just a few of the biggest benefits you can expect when you optimize your artwork management process.

1. Reduced Costs

Every action in a business costs money. Those costs can add up when your business grows and becomes more complex.  So how do you avoid rising costs? Efficient artwork management. If every detail is correct and organized from the beginning, less time and money are used on artwork management and fixing packaging mistakes.

2. Faster Time-to-Market

Artwork development and approval can put a hold on operations if not done efficiently. This can result in a product not making it to market in time, meaning you can potentially lose out on sales. 

Artwork management simplifies these processes, saving time and helping you get your product on the market as soon as possible.

3. Reduced Human Error

Artwork management comes with an unfortunate truth: many product recalls and other consequences occur due to simple artwork errors that could have been avoided from the start. Following a streamlined artwork management process ensures artwork is developed, reviewed, and approved properly, reducing mistakes.

4. Improved Workflows

As your business grows, your operations become more complex. While the growth is positive, the complexity poses challenges. One of the best ways to overcome those challenges is through artwork management. Proper artwork management enables you to develop workflows that keep projects moving through the pipeline and stakeholders on the same page.

The Role of Artwork Management in Packaging Workflows

Packaging workflows can make or break a growing business. With all the stakeholders and deadlines involved, operations can come to a screeching halt if your workflows aren’t efficient. That’s where artwork management comes into play.

Effective artwork management plays a massive role in packaging workflows—the kind of role that’s too big to ignore. Think about all the possible inconsistencies, from artwork versions to decentralized data. Those issues can cause huge bottlenecks.

With effective artwork management, you can instead enjoy a variety of benefits. For example, effective artwork management can help you push your artwork from concept to completion in record time.

Effective artwork management also ensures stakeholders can review and approve artwork, avoiding miscommunication. Without this level of review, you can’t be sure that every piece of artwork will meet every stakeholder’s standards.

In the same vein, effective artwork management ensures compliance for all assets. Whether you’re launching a product into the local or global market, compliance is essential. A label made of non-compliant artwork won’t see the light of day in any market.

Using Mox for Effective Artwork Management

The artwork management process can be full of obstacles. You might end up dealing with delays, implementing the wrong feedback, or even missing deadlines.

So what can you do? One of the best solutions is implementing an artwork approval platform like Mox. These platforms provide a central hub for all stakeholders and collaborators, ensuring all data and feedback are in the same place.

But what else can Mox help you do? Here are just a few of the benefits and features:

• More efficient collaboration: With Mox, stakeholders and designers can communicate through a central hub. There's no need to discuss feedback via cumbersome email threads or chat tools. Plus, notifications allow stakeholders to see who's doing what and the next steps they should take.
• More visible workflows: Transparency in your workflows will lead to fewer mistakes and improve your project management processes. Plus, reusable workflow templates ensure the right people see the right file at the right time across projects.
• A faster time to market: With Mox, you can maximize your investment and get the most out of your product launch by speeding up the time it takes to approve artwork and launch. How? Mox enables you to spend less time rifling through emails trying to find out what changes are needed, who has reviewed the artwork, and what next steps are required. This leads to more effective, centralized collaboration and a faster approval process.
• Improved scalability: Mox can grow with your business, meaning you won’t need to switch artwork management platforms.

Streamline Artwork Management With Mox

Artwork management is crucial for optimizing packaging workflows and, in turn, ensuring your business’s success. When you implement efficient artwork management processes, you can save money and time while reducing human errors.

With Mox, you can streamline your artwork management and approve artwork in record time. Start your Mox trial today.