With so many beautiful custom packaging options, what’s to stop you from customizing all the things? Well, technically nothing, but it is possible to get a little heavy handed with branded packaging. It’s all about creating a packaging rhythm that makes sense for your brand.
Maybe that means you use your full logo on the outside of your box and line it with custom tissue, patterned with a minimal graphic element of your brand. Or you could use your logo on patterned tissue inside of a blank box, sealed with custom tape. There are any number of ways you can create the ideal packaging system for your brand, and they don’t have to include you full logo on every piece. Here is some inspiration from brands creating a branded experience by artfully choosing where and when to go custom.
This roundup includes inspiration from some of our favorite companies and designers around the web. Unless specified, these designs are not made by Lumi.
Crafted Taste
We love a colored subscription box. The striped walls and "Fragile" sticker make for a really bold first impression, so the simplicity inside the box works really well. Solid white crinkle paper and white tissue look classy with black labels tying the whole concept together.
Seis Chiles
This is definitely a lesson in letting plain paper textures work for your brand. Kraft is part of Seis Chiles' brand colors, rather than just an default material. To complement their custom grocery-style bags, they use blank materials that they customize as they go. They wrap their food in plain white butcher, sealed with a stamp and their kraft boxes are customized with a stick-on label.
Le Labo
This natural fragrance brand really masters minimalist packaging that's just enough. From cardboard outside to kraft inside, it really feels like an intimate, personal experience. The customization is subtle and carefully chosen with the label outside matching the one on the bottle and a stamped logo adding texture to the top of the box. Photos via Senn and Sons.
Coffee & Co
A plain lunch bag fits right in with this custom lineup, and all it needed was a sticker — masking tape would also look great! When you're designing the packaging materials you stock up on the most, think about versatile, affordable ways to customize them as you go.
Coffee & Co by Bond
Everlane
This is a brand that promotes transparency, and their straightforward packaging fits really well with their branding. Everyane uses butcher paper to wrap their items, and they simply seal it with a custom label.
Flower Concept
When you're product is as bright and poppy as flowers, it can be best to let them do all the talking. We love this classic kraft approach with a custom label sealing each bouquet. An additional layer of custom tissue would look great around the sturdy butcher paper.
Flower concept by Johanna Brännström, Charlie Nyrjä, Alexandra Forssén, and Camilla Edlund
Plinth
If your brand color is really saturated and vibrant, flood coat some tape and stick it on everything! With a strong brand color, you can actually rely more on blank packaging and stick your way to custom branding with tape and labels.
Create a packaging system that works best for your business and accentuate your branding with a look that's really polished.