Our team is obsessed with giving customers the ability to wow their employees and clients with custom swag. One way we deliver this experience is by partnering with Packlane, a custom package design company that helps us create the customized swag boxes that our customers love.
Packlane was founded by Miriam Brafman in 2015 to address the gaps in the custom packaging industry. Since then, it has since grown into one of the most powerful tools for entrepreneurs and start-up designers looking to create impactful product experiences for their clients.
We spoke with Miriam about the origins of Packlane, the trend towards design-driven ecommerce and why people seem to love unboxing videos so much.
What gave you the idea to start Packlane? What were the things you felt were missing or could be improved upon in the custom packaging realm?
I was getting really interested in ecommerce around 2014. The new kinds of companies that were taking off were all design-driven brands. I actually came from a background of web-development and graphic design, so I was very drawn to the creative canvas of starting an ecommerce brand.
Around that time I started looking into things like how to start a shopify business, and the component that got me really excited was just being able to have a physical product and have a physical branding experience. What came to mind immediately was the packaging. I started getting curious about looking into how I would go about designing packaging for consumer products.
As I was looking online, it was really obvious to me that I couldn’t find any attractive options when I was performing online searches for this. All the websites I came across just looked quite dated. To me, it was obvious that there would be some sort of service or business that would make the buying experience for new ecommerce brands, or really any new upstarts or designers, really easy to use with a lot of really attractive imagery and things like that.
I kind of knew that there was this obvious gap in the market, and it was a question of, “Well, someone else is going to build this if I don’t, and I think I could come up with a great solution to it because it’s at the intersection of of all of my interests: ecommerce, design, and technology.”
The more I kind of dug into the sector, the more I realized there were all these opportunities and converging trends that were aligning to make this a really compelling opportunity. I could envision a long term product roadmap and business evolution around this concept of modernizing the custom packaging experience.
There was also just a lot of demand sprinkled around the internet. People were asking questions about where to buy custom boxes, how do I get this done, who’s a good resource… There were all the underpinnings of a great business opportunity that I got excited about. I just started building it and working on it.
What do you think is important about package design generally, and in ecommerce specifically? How has the growing desire for that played out over the last few years?
I think it’s part of the trend of brands being more and more design driven. There’s so much that you need to do to stand out now. A lot of value is being created purely from having a great, differentiated brand experience. Everybody’s trying to outdo one other on the design side, and that’s changed the way people look at packaging.
There was definitely a period where people were looking at packaging as more of a cost center, but now, it’s really tablespace to create a great brand. If you want to compete against all the other really well funded and well resourced online businesses that are coming out, you really do have to invest in the packaging.
The demand for ecommerce has obviously grown over the past few years, and we’ve been able to help a lot of those new customers get started. One of the things that Packlane is known for is offering low minimums and easy to use design tools. It’s ground zero if you’re a new brand if you want to test out different designs and don’t want to commit to really high quantities. If you want something really affordable with really fast shipping time, that’s where Packlane comes in and is able to help.
What are some of the most important things to consider when designing a custom box?
The key things to consider are graphic design fundamentals like typography, color and illustration! A lot of people get carried away with the form factor, or doing a lot of creative stuff with the packaging, and I think that’s great. But just having the basics, like partnering with a great designer if you’re not a designer yourself, is worth investing a few more percentage points into to get a really great outcome.
It’s simple stuff, but it has to be the right type of expert that’s helping you to get the packaging nailed down.
What’s the number one thing to consider when designing a box that will make an impact?
Foundational graphic design knowledge! Things as simple as choosing the right logo and font. If you have a great logo and you put it on a box, sometimes that’s all you need. Make sure that the branding is able to get attention, and isn’t generic and has some character.
When you have those foundations there, you really don’t need to do anything too spectacular or fancy when it comes to designing your box. You can do something as simple as having your logo on the box, and that’s enough– if you have a great brand.
Why do you think people love unboxing videos?
I don’t really know to be honest! I don’t personally watch them or get excited about them. But if I had to guess, I would say it has to do with the personality of the person who’s doing the unboxing. If I were doing an unboxing video, it would be the most boring thing on earth, especially if I’m not excited about the product.
But what I think you see with these videos is that you have such an incredible volume of amazing personalities of people making content that are truly excited about the products that they’re unboxing. It’s contagious! If you see somebody is just giddy over some silly product in a box, it’s really about that person and their personality and what they’re doing with the content more than the actual thing that they’re doing.
There’s an act or ceremony around it because of the personality.You’re able to capture this zeitgeist, or lightning in a bottle when the right influencer or right personality opens your product. Something magical happens there.
Internet magic.
Exactly.
What’s the most memorable package you’ve ever opened?
Probably my first music synthesizer, the Teenage Engineering OP-1. It came in a beautiful molded paper insert and the outer box graphics were so incredible that I kept it around even after 8+ years!
What impact have you seen design make in the ecommerce space? Reach out to blog@swag.com for a chance to be featured.
