How Did We Create the Star Food Label Design — and What Did We Learn About EU Food Labeling?

TL;DR: Star Food labels were designed by Anastasiia Kolisnyk of akillustrator.com) — a professional illustrator and brand designer based in Slovakia. The project ran from brief to production in 6 weeks, covering 5 languages (EN, BG, GR, PL, UA) and full compliance with EU Regulation 1169/2011. Label design for a European food product is not a cosmetic choice — it directly affects market access, distributor perception, and regulatory compliance across 27 EU member states.

Quick Answer: Star Food Label Key Facts

• Designer: Anastasiia Kolisnyk — akillustrator.com)
• Languages on label: English, Bulgarian, Greek, Polish, Ukrainian
• EU compliance: EU Regulation 1169/2011 food information requirements
• Bottle sizes covered: 1L, 3L, 5L PET
• Certifications shown: Non-GMO, ISO 22000 HACCP
• Design timeline: 6 weeks from brief to production-ready files
• Key insight: Professional label design increases distributor conversion rate significantly

Why does label design matter in European food trading?

When we launched the Star Food brand, our first instinct was to focus on the product — sourcing, quality, logistics. Label design felt secondary. A distributor in Hamburg was going to care about the CoA and the price, not the graphic design of the bottle.

We were wrong.

At a food trade fair in Plovdiv in early 2025, we placed our first Star Food prototypes next to a competitor's products on a table. Both contained identical quality sunflower oil. The competitor's bottle had a clean, professional European-style label with embossed elements and color-coded nutritional information. Our first prototype had what I can only describe as a functional but uninspiring label that looked like it had been designed in a spreadsheet.

Three distributors walked past that table. All three picked up the competitor's bottle first. One of them — a buyer for a Romanian grocery chain — looked at ours and said: "The product might be excellent, but buyers won't spend time finding that out if the label doesn't invite them in."

That conversation changed our approach to packaging permanently. In the European food wholesale market, your label is your first sales pitch. Distributors and retailers evaluate new suppliers constantly. They do not have time to investigate every product. A professional label communicates instantly: this company understands quality, understands the European market, and is ready to be on a shelf.

Who is Anastasiia Kolisnyk and why did we choose her?

Finding the right designer for food packaging in Europe is harder than it sounds. You need someone who understands both aesthetics and regulatory constraints — the EU food labeling framework is detailed and non-negotiable, and a designer who does not know it will produce beautiful artwork that cannot legally go to market.

We found Anastasiia Kolisnyk through her portfolio on akillustrator.com). Based in Slovakia, Anastasiia specializes in product packaging, branding, and illustration. Her portfolio included several food and beverage packaging projects for European brands, and her design language — clean, warm, European in feel — matched exactly what we wanted for Star Food.

What distinguished Anastasiia from other designers we considered was her approach to the brief. When we described the challenge — a multilingual food label that needs to comply with five different language requirements while maintaining visual coherence across 1L, 3L, and 5L bottle sizes — she immediately started asking about EU labeling requirements, HACCP certification placement, and barcode positioning. She was not just a visual artist. She understood the operational reality of food packaging.

What was the Star Food brand brief?

Before any design work began, we developed a detailed brand brief for Anastasiia. The brief defined everything the label had to communicate and achieve:

Brand identity requirements:

• Brand name: Star Food — evokes quality, reliability, European standard
• Color palette: Blue (trust, professionalism, EU market familiarity) + Yellow (sunflower, warmth, natural origin)
• Visual language: Clean and professional, premium but approachable
• Target audience: European B2B buyers — distributors, retailers, HoReCa operators

Technical requirements:

• Must accommodate EU Regulation 1169/2011 mandatory elements for all 5 languages
• Must scale across 1L, 3L, and 5L PET bottles without redesign
• Barcode placement optimized for retail scanning
• Batch number and production date space built into layout
• Certification logos (Non-GMO, ISO 22000) integrated without visual clutter

Market requirements:

• Ready for immediate distribution in Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Ukraine markets
• Professional enough to sit alongside established European food brands in retail
• Design language that signals quality comparable to Western European packaging standards

How did the design process unfold?

Anastasiia structured the project in four phases, which is a useful framework for anyone commissioning food packaging design for the European market.

Phase 1 — Regulatory mapping (Week 1)

Before touching any design software, Anastasiia mapped all mandatory EU Regulation 1169/2011 elements against our five target languages. This is the phase most designers skip — and the reason many food labels require expensive reprints after regulatory review.

EU Regulation 1169/2011 requires the following mandatory elements on every pre-packaged food product:

"Getting the regulatory mapping done first saved us at least two rounds of revisions," Anastasiia explained during our debrief. "Most label redesigns happen because the client gets the artwork approved visually, then sends it to their legal team and discovers mandatory information is missing or wrongly positioned."

Phase 2 — Concept development (Weeks 2–3)

With the regulatory framework established, Anastasiia developed three distinct visual concepts. All three used the blue and yellow palette from the brief, but differed in their approach to the central visual element.

The winning concept placed the Star Food circular logo as the dominant front element, surrounded by a soft sunflower field illustration representing the product's natural origin. Typography was structured in a clear hierarchy: product name large and readable at shelf distance, secondary information in compact but legible blocks.

One design decision that proved unexpectedly important: Anastasiia insisted on using font sizes slightly larger than the EU minimum requirements for multilingual text. "The EU minimum for most mandatory text is 1.2mm x-height," she noted. "That's technically legal but practically unreadable for older buyers in warehouse lighting. We went to 1.5mm minimum. This also helps in photography and digital catalog display."

Phase 3 — Refinement and multi-language testing (Weeks 4–5)

This phase focused on one specific challenge that is easy to underestimate: text length varies dramatically between languages. The phrase "Refined Sunflower Oil" in Bulgarian and Greek runs significantly longer than in English. Anastasiia designed text boxes with enough flexibility to accommodate the longest language variant without requiring the layout to reflow.

The design was tested at actual bottle scale — printed at 1:1 size on paper wrapped around each bottle format — before any digital approval. This revealed two issues: the nutritional table was slightly too small for comfortable reading on the 1L bottle, and one certification logo placement created a visual conflict with the barcode on the back panel. Both were fixed before final files were delivered.

Phase 4 — Production files (Week 6)

Final delivery included print-ready files for all bottle sizes in both CMYK (for offset printing) and Pantone-matched variants. Anastasiia also provided brand guidelines specifying exact color values, minimum logo sizes, and clear space rules — documentation that our label manufacturer and any future designer will need.

What does EU Regulation 1169/2011 actually require?

For any food company planning to sell pre-packaged products in the European market, understanding this regulation is not optional. It covers every pre-packaged food product sold to end consumers and to mass caterers (including HoReCa businesses) in the EU.

The nine mandatory elements every EU food label must contain:

1. Name of the food — Must describe the true nature of the product accurately. "Premium Oil" is not acceptable; "Refined Sunflower Oil" is.

2. List of ingredients — In descending order by weight. For single-ingredient products like pure sunflower oil, this can be simplified.

3. Quantity of certain ingredients — If an ingredient is highlighted in the name or imagery, its percentage must be declared.

4. Net quantity — In metric units. For liquids: milliliters or liters.

5. Date of minimum durability or "use by" date — "Best before" is used for most shelf-stable products. Format must be clear and standardized.

6. Storage and/or use conditions — Where the safe use of the product requires specific storage conditions.

7. Name and address of responsible food business operator — The manufacturer, packer, or EU-registered importer.

8. Country or place of origin — Mandatory for specific categories including vegetable oils, honey, olive oil, fish, and fresh meat. For sunflower oil, country of origin declaration is required.

9. Instructions for use — Where omission would make it difficult to make appropriate use of the product.

Additionally required from December 2016:

A nutritional declaration per 100ml or 100g including: energy (in kJ and kcal), fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugars, protein, and salt. For sunflower oil, this is straightforward — the declaration is essentially fat content and energy.

What did the Star Food label project cost and teach us?

We invested approximately €2,800 in the complete Star Food label design project — covering all bottle sizes, all languages, production files, brand guidelines, and two rounds of revision. This is mid-range for professional European food packaging design.

The return was immediate. Within three months of launching with the new labels, our distributor inquiry rate from trade directory listings increased noticeably. More concretely, at a B2B meeting in Bucharest in late 2025, a retail buyer told us directly: "Your packaging looks comparable to what I see from Western European brands. That matters to my category manager."

The five lessons we took from the project:

1. Regulatory mapping before design, not after. Start with every mandatory element your label must contain in every target market language. Design around the content, not the other way around.

2. Test at actual scale. Digital mockups are misleading. Print your label at real size, wrap it around your actual bottle, and look at it in bad lighting. This reveals readability issues that look fine on screen.

3. Design for the longest language variant. If your label works in Greek (which tends to expand text length), it will work in English. The reverse is not always true.

4. Invest in brand guidelines. The label itself is one deliverable. The brand guidelines — specifying exact colors, fonts, minimum sizes, and usage rules — are what allow you to maintain consistency as you add products, sizes, or markets.

5. Professional packaging is a distributor conversion tool. Every Euro invested in professional label design returns in fewer conversations explaining why your product is as good as the better-known brand next to it on the shelf.

Interested in distributing Star Food products? Become a partner or request a price list. To see Anastasiia Kolisnyk's full portfolio, visit akillustrator.com).

Sources: EU Regulation 1169/2011 on food information to consumers, UB Market brand development documentation 2025, Anastasiia Kolisnyk design project brief and delivery records.

Written by

UB Market Trading Team

EU food trading experts with 12+ countries of experience. ISO 22000 & HACCP certified. Specializing in sunflower oil, frying oil, and sugar wholesale.