People buy handmade items online to support small businesses and passionate artisans. With custom packaging boxes, you can give your customers a unique unboxing experience as a special thank you for supporting your business. Unique packages help set your business apart and provide a strong brand impression to build a loyal customer base.
If you are creating a custom packaging box for your product, you want it to reflect your brand and create a memorable experience. Check out these design tips for creating a custom packaging box for your handmade art.
Choose Packaging Materials Carefully
The materials you choose to print on will say a lot to your customer on a very basic level. High-quality materials just feel different. They exude value. You will find they often print prettier and hold up better to folding, cutting, opening, and shipping. High quality doesn’t mean “not cardboard,” though—a nice corrugated cardboard prints beautifully, ships well, and feels well-made and luxurious in the customer’s hands.
The right materials for your brand may be recycled—improving your company’s impact on the environment. Customers like sustainability, so choosing materials that repurpose waste or have been responsibility manufactured can give your box an edge.
Include Custom Box Personalization
If possible, look for ways to set your package apart with personalization. Personalization has become a buzzword in the marketing industry because it shows your audience that you understand them. Simple customization can really show how much a customer means to your small business. It’s easy to print names on custom packaging boxes. You might also choose to personalize the contents based on what you know about your customer.
Conceal the Value of Your Package
Color is eye-catching and exciting in a custom package, but it might catch the eye of the wrong people, too. You don’t want the custom box to be stolen from the porch. One option is to package your printed box inside a brown box or standard mailer, or to avoid additional shipping costs, consider using colorful print on the inside of the box for theft protection and a fun unboxing surprise.
Focus on the unboxing part—what does your audience experience when they open the package? You can use artwork and colors on the inside of the box to create an unexpected surprise. You can also create your custom box to fit within a standard brown shipping box—concealing the colorful nature of your design.
Change Up the Packaging Design
Customized boxes offer a great opportunity to change the look. You can swap out artwork or themes without even redesigning the whole box. Change boxes quarterly, seasonally, or even monthly to get your customers excited about their packages. Especially when ordering from small businesses, the box can feel like part of the art, and your customers may keep, use as gift boxes, or even display boxes with different designs.
Consider All Spaces for Design Elements
Use every part of the packaging to create an impressive package. Consider how the negative space (or blank spaces) can add to the design. Use textures and patterns to fill voids and balance blocks of text. Solid color blocks, large fonts, and patterns can be paired together to direct the eyes to key focal points on your package.
Use the Power of Negative Space
It might seem a little contradictory to talk about simplicity after recommending you look at every surface, but it’s quite the opposite. Carefully design each surface. It’s easy to fall for a number of alluring design elements. Too busy or complex, and the overarching message of your package may get lost in the clutter.
Keep the focus in a singular place using design theory and composition rules. As you consider how the package will be opened, determine what you want the customer to experience at each point of the unboxing process.
Compliment the Package Contents
Use the packaging to enhance the look of the product or materials in the box. Combine that look with your brand direction. You might choose a playful, artistic, modern, natural, or rustic approach. This is going to impact the fonts you choose, the color tones, and more.
If your handmade product is colorful, then the packaging might be neutral (black, white, or tan) to help accentuate the product. If the product is simple, the package might have bold colors or a contrasting pattern.
Texture can be used to physically back this approach and make the product interesting to interact with, whether the visible design is minimal or complex. You don’t want an excess of packaging for your product, so always look for ways to enhance what you are highlighting.
Do Custom Boxes Yourself with DIYPack
Your packaging should reflect the love and care you put into each item you make for customers. DIYPack makes custom box design easy for first time box designers like you to create a beautiful, professional product that elevates the experience your customers have with their order. Get started today by reviewing our artwork guidelines:
