There’s something really enticing about a nicely wrapped package. Whether it’s a gift for a friend or something you bought for yourself, the extra details of the package — the box, the tissue paper, the ribbons — they make opening the bundle a treat in itself.

It’s important to have a good packaging design for two main reasons:

1. it gives your product a “finished” look, adding to the value of your work — it catches the attention of those who are just browsing, and people immediately see the extra time and care you spent on it

2. it protects each item from wear and tear of being on a storeshelf, being touched by curious customers, and from the bumpy (and sometimes rainy) rides in the mail truck

Here are some tips for how to come up with package your stationery:

- clear plastic envelopes are great for card-and-envelope notesets, especially if you’re selling them individually

(Screenprinted notecards and matching envelopes by Good on Paper are packaged in clear plastic sleeves with an informational sticker on the front that has her brand name and logo.)

- if you’re selling sets of cards and envelopes, custom-sized boxes are great — besides protecting the cards, people often save them after they’ve used up all the cards (especially if they’re nicely decorated) to put their own trinkets in

(The postal decorativ collection of 1201am consists of a set of 8 postcards packaged in a clear plastic box with a logo sticker.)

- if you don’t want to have a box or envelope, you might consider some type of ribbon or vellum strip that binds the cover and pages together so the pages will be protected from poking fingers of people who are “just browsing”

(Herman Yu’s cards, above left) are packaged in a die-cut box that shows the card design through the square window. All This is Mine’s sewing cards and matching envelopes (above right) are held together with a strip of satin measuring tape.) 

Be creative with the materials you use. If there’s a theme to your items, have the packaging match that. Try using different types of papers, like old maps, art papers, newspaper, and comics. And you could seal up your package with things like string, ribbon, gardening wire, or whatever else you have handy. This tutorial by Dawbis shows a great way to use old paper shopping bags. Remember though, don’t go overboard with the packaging, and have your brand clearly visible on the outside packaging.

Some extra things to keep in mind:

- if you’re sending your stationery via mail, it’s a good idea to put some type of plastic protective wrapping around the products before you put them in the box or envelope for shipping. Besides being bumped around, you never know if your parcel is going to be delivered on the rainiest day of the year — to arrive in the hands of an anxious customer who opens it up to find that, because there was no waterproof wrapping, all your beautiful goods are soggy and curled. (For more on this, check out these pointers for how to prepare your parcel for shipping by ehow.)

- if you’re preparing your items to be sold in a store, you might want to provide an extra sample item that isn’t wrapped up like the others that can be used for display. It’ll draw more people to look at your stuff, and once they’ve decided they want to get it, they can pick out a brand new packaged one from the stack beside the sample.

For some more great ideas on how to package things, or to share what clever ways you’ve chosen to wrap things up, stop by the flickr group nice package.

July 24th, 2006