Not a pitch deck, not a swim-lane diagram — the real sequence, from the first call to the pallet leaving the printer. What I need from you at each step, roughly how long it takes, and what you’re holding at the end of it.
Every project moves through the same eight steps, whether it’s one SKU or forty. Scope changes the timeline, not the order.
Not ready for the full thing? Start with the free teardown →Boxy is a folding carton — ears and all. Here he is going through the exact thing your packaging does: cut flat, printed, folded and glued, then out where people can actually buy it.
EIGHT STEPS, START TO SHELF
You tell me what’s going on — a launch, a range that’s drifted apart, a line that costs more than it should. I ask about the category, the retailer, who’s deciding, and roughly what you have to spend. Fifteen minutes in, I can usually tell you whether I’m the right person for it.
I go get what’s actually on shelf in your set — yours and everyone else’s — and look at your current packaging the way a converter would: substrate, structure, print method, and where the cost is going versus what it’s actually buying you on shelf.
We put the scope, the deliverables, the timeline and the number in writing. No surprises three weeks in because nobody agreed what “done” actually meant.
Multiple directions, built out of the audit, not a mood board. I’ll tell you which one I’d bet on and why — I’m not handing you ten options to make it feel like you got your money’s worth.
The chosen direction gets built out for real — color checked against your substrate, structure tested against what your converter can actually run, copy and regulatory panels dropped in.
Press-ready art — separations, trap, dielines matched to your converter’s press and substrate, white underprint where it’s needed. The file your printer opens without calling me first.
I check the first sheet or run off press against the approved proof — color, registration, structure. The things that only show up once ink is actually on substrate.
The run ships and it goes on shelf — and I look at it there, not just on a monitor. Catching what needs fixing before the next print run is a lot cheaper than living with it for a year.
The first conversation is free, and it usually tells us both what we need to know.
Every step above is scoped to your budget — see Services for ranges.