Large projects are time consuming and demand spot-on project management. We used Airtable for tracking and sharing status on these large projects. We stay nimble with the tools we use, depending on the needs of the client and the project.

Much of this spring was focused on a blue sky salad kit ideation–doing competitive benchmarks, research and ideation. Different from much of our work, but fascinating. That project was managed through a Sharepoint site. Whatever the needs of the client, we are there. And, we can help you find a tool if you need it–Pageproof, for example, was introduced to clients for easy online approvals for a couple of projects this year.

We find a lot of satisfaction with startups and entrepreneurs. For those folks, communication is usually through email, zooms and phone. Solving small business challenges and improving their branding is our happy place. We spent a lot of time this year helping a Malibu jam company source their jar–no small feat in the current market, and then updating the look and feel of their sell sheets and recipe cards. We have a digital printer partner to economically print a small quantity.

In support of our small business friends, we have also partnered with a social media maven who focuses on small businesses. Having worked for a startup, she knows the challenges of content creation, regular posting and engagement. As a designer, she is able to leverage your assets in building out a social calendar. If you’d like an introduction, let me know. (We mainly communicate thru Slack, as we do with most of our design team. So. Many. Tools.)

And, of course, we’re still helping produce straight up wine! Cheers to small producers and new product launches whilst navigating complex supply chain issues, getting press time and getting to market.

What will the second half of 2022 look like?

By virtue of osmosis through experience, I will, however, accept some kind of honorary degree. With the advent of the Digital Shelf, it has really crystalized for me the definition of good design as well as the value of good design.

How do I define good design? Well, we’ve got Dieter Rams’s Ten Pillars of Good Design as a starting point. While they date back some 50 years, they are timeless. For example, Good design is environmentally-friendly and Good design makes a product understandable. They are all still true today, we’ve just piled on more channels and demands on how the design must work.

Three examples for you:

Making design inclusive and accessible for everyone regardless of ability. This is given a lot of energy when it comes to UX design, but it also needs to be considered for packaging and general design. There are simple things, like contrast. Contrast can be quantified: A tool for you to do just that is here.

Of course, type size is important for those of us of a certain age. In 2005, the European Union (EU) made it a requirement for braille to be on pharmaceutical packaging, and it is seeing expansion beyond that category. The complexities of Braille are fascinating; click here if you’re interested in the technical aspects of producing Braille.

The only winery I’ve found which incorporates Braille is based in France, Chapotier:

As a life-long literacy advocate, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a shout-out to this Sonoma County Braille hero.

Embracing design which works on the digital shelf: the brand experience of course now extends to e-commerce sites, and there isn’t a much more disappointing brand experience than receiving a product which doesn’t look like the image on the website. Content management is crucial to ensure the right asset is shared, but so is design that considers what the product will look like on one’s phone screen. Here are a couple of before and after to consider—all the enhanced designs still work perfectly on the retail shelf, but also read better on a screen.

According to researchers at the University of Cambridge, Unilever saw an average 24% lift in e-commerce sales with improved images using optimized heros over plain product shots. You could just change the visual, but why not optimize the packaging graphics themselves, and ensure the same product being shown is the product which ships to the customer.

With the strength of social media and influencers, building and maintaining a positive brand image has never been more important.  A study found that positive brand image could influence customer loyalty so that they would repurchase more product or service and recommend others to buy as much as 41.8%. This study also shows that there was positive relationship between brand image and customer loyalty as much as 35.8%.  Those numbers are compelling. A positive brand image comes through thoughtful positioning and impeccable brand stewardship.

To conclude, there is so much to pack into a good design. And good design is that which has been thoughtful about as many pillars as possible, especially those which your brand have identified as priorities. This is all hard—but it is definitely worth it. Positive change in the market comes with companies and brands committing to outreach (be it ADA endorsements or designing for minimal environmental impact), and keeping a strong, consistent brand image. It can be a daunting task—especially if you ask the same creative people who figure out what it should look like to then turn into production experts and produce it. As they say, it takes a village.

This is where Loupe Graphics can help with your workflow—a deep understanding of the value of your design, respect for the design intent, and the technical knowledge to figure out how best to produce it. Let the designers design. Let us print engineers print. We’ll figure out how to bring the vision to life.

What she didn’t appreciate at the time was my dedication to US production—there were many customers (including one I serviced for over 20 years!) who pressured me to find offshore options to reduce their price. I declined, first on labor principles to keep Americans employed, and later for sustainability concerns and managing the overall environmental footprint.

In today’s challenging supply chain, there is more reason than ever to “shop local” whenever we can to ensure some control over one’s destiny. It shocks me to learn of companies getting their primary packaging printed overseas—especially CBD products with nonstop regulatory content changes. It may be ok when it gets on the boat, but by the time it arrives, is it really cost effective if you are forced to overlabel a million wrappers to correct something on the packaging? (not to mention what it does to one’s brand integrity)

Recently, it warmed my heart when a client asked me to find a US solution for some wine gift boxes. We worked hard to find a good partner, and in the end, we found not only US manufacturers with competitive pricing, but we found BAY AREA manufacturers to produce the rigid set up boxes. This project kept no less than 4 companies busy, employees working, and also greatly reduced the freight impact for local delivery. (Ask me sometime about my experience shipping air/empty boxes…)

The best part of the story, though, is one of the subcontractors. For years, I worked with Apex Die for high end collateral material. I went to college with one of the founding family members. My former father-in-law was their attorney for years. So, when it was time for the exquisite foil emboss on the wine box, I was thrilled to find out I would get to do the press ok in a place that has great personal history to me, and the best reputation in the bay area printing industry for foil finishing work. They did not disappoint. So pleased they continue to thrive in the underground trade economy.

So, some reasons to print local:

• Keep fellow Americans employed
• Reduce the overall environmental footprint of printed goods by limiting freight
• Reduced lead times allow for flexibility in content
• Long term relationships lead to better outcomes

You won’t notice it, but even our online portal Sandbox is configured to use vendors who are local to the ship-to destination. One of the vendors is a printer we’ve used for 25 years, and he has our complete trust.

If you’d like to find local solutions for your print and packaging, send us an email. We are currently vetting a west coast supplier of wood boxes with capacity to produce now!

We’ll help you reduce your environmental footprint, and keep your neighbors employed.

But, what does it matter? At the end of the day, the way something is printed doesn’t really matter to most print buyers and category managers. Even I have become (mostly) agnostic when it comes to print technique because the quality of most options can be similar.

(That’s not to say that different print techniques don’t require different prepress—which is why having an SME like Loupe Graphics in your corner can be a game changer.)

So, why all the noise for digital print?

Well, here a few basics, the first of which may not matter to you as a buyer, but you can bet it makes your supplier more efficient:

1. Reduced set up time: instead of a press set up taking hours (like on many narrow web label presses), a digital press set up is done in mere minutes, the blink of an eye in comparison.  
2. Reduced waste: the amount of waste generated for digital printing is significantly less than flexo or litho, saving thousands and thousands of feet of material. 
3. Low volume runs become more economical, and you can manage your inventory–order exactly what you need, when you need it.

And, now for the sexy parts:

• Every. Print. Can. Be. Different.  And, there are easy ways now to execute such a design—it can do so much more than sequentially number wine labels. One of my favorite case studies is the Nutella pack—First it was personalized labels, followed by a special campaign which was accomplished using HP Mosaic; it has proven so successfully, there is a press in Italy dedicated to producing sleeves for the design as long as it remains popular. You can see a colorful video here: https://youtu.be/RY-nK4ChLEQ

• With digital solutions, it’s easy to manage custom campaigns, whether purpose-driven, seasonal, corporate or a limited edition like the Hershey’s package for International Women’s Day and Kind’s LGBTQ support.

Labels can be customized for corporate partnerships and gifts or cobranding campaigns:

If you are shipping subscriptions or kits with a common box but with different content, each box can be customized for that content:

Digital is also a great solution for sales samples and testing to get to market faster:

When you start thinking of your packaging as the first line in your multi-channel marketing, you’ll start to see the possibilities. (and, we haven’t even mentioned supplementing your story telling with smart packaging!)

The proof is in the data:  According to the World Advertising Research Center, 53% of Gen Z want brands to offer personalized or customized products. These packages become a way for consumers to express themselves or their preferences and, hopefully, share their discovery with their friends and social network.

When Nutella first introduced their Mosaic-designed container, they had 3 million impressions and over 10,000 user videos shared. Which explains why they continue to offer unique packaging.

So, why digital?  Impactful storytelling using the package as your creative platform, creating brand-building with the coveted demographics of millennials and Gen Z while at the same time saving time and the planet with more efficient production.

How do you use it? Need more food for thought?  Contact Loupe for more ideas.

Over the years, I’ve received pears and popcorn. Wine and chocolates. Can’t really remember who sent what. There is one I will never forget though. One of the most over the top, memorable corporate gifts I ever received was an intricate, creative (ie, no real rules) board game from Stranger and Stranger.

Of course, Stranger is known for their exquisite designs in the wine and spirits space; every year, they try to out-perform the prior year’s gift. This one from over 5 years ago really took the prize. And, I still remember it.

We can’t all produce a bespoke board game with custom marbles for our clients, so how do you say thank you, and make it special?

For my personal gift giving, I try to meet as many of these goals as possible:

• Something they need
• Something they want
• Something beautiful
• Something to read

In my corporate giving, here’s how I translate:

1. Something they’ve never seen
2. Something they don’t expect
3. Something beautiful
4. Something personalized

I think I’ve hit the jackpot with all four principles this year—definitely new, unexpected and oh so beautiful. Plus I get to lift-up a friend’s new business. What is better than that?

And, personalized you say? Well, naturally I’m using www.sandbox.loupegraphics.com for a digitally printed shipper to safely pack and ship. It is the middle of October—which is plenty of time for a design and print of a digital run.

Who will be on Santa’s list?

What are you planning for your colleagues and clients to make your gift memorable and meaningful?

This is how we need to imagine e-commerce shipments. You did the very hard work of gaining a customer; you can make sure you keep them by sending them a package which triggers those feelings of care, attention, opportunity and, yes, even obligation.

With Sandbox, we’ve given you a platform to create and print the items you need to make your shipment a standout. Anything can be added to the site for you to access over and over again, to make content updates and order for fulfillment, all in one quick portal.

We’re experts at printing, so that part is easy. The hard part is deciding what tools to use for your communicating with your customers. Your brand may have an established voice and style which makes your decision easy. If you’re not sure, here are some ideas:

NEWSLETTERS: How do you share the experience of your winery with customers who can’t physically visit? How can you inspire them to remember the good time they had when they signed up for your club on a visit? Any kind of printed piece to share info can help—people want to support small businesses so it’s a good idea to remind them there are people behind your great wine. Share an update about the growing season you’re in. Show off photos of your beautiful vineyards—highlighting the behind the scenes helps customers connect to you on a personal level, and makes them feel special by being “in the know.”

RECIPE CARDS: Food pairings designed to show off your wines are a natural. We’ve seen some virtual events that include a cooking demonstration, so sending the menu and recipe with the wine ahead of time will be expected. Recipe cards are tangible—and something that cooks will hold on to, along with the beautiful photo of your wine and your logo, front and center. Good memory, good reminder. Include a url or QR code to direct them to your website for additional recipes. And more wine.

TASTING NOTES—even if you’ve gone digital with your tasting notes, give your members a card in the box to explain how to find the notes. Directing them to your website, or a QR code linked to tasting notes or a review is vital if that is where the information lives. We can, of course, provide printed tasting notes to slip in the box or create a wine journal for your club members which provides an overview of your wines and space for them to track as they taste through your collection.

VIRTUAL TASTINGS—if you’re offering at home, virtual tastings, you will want a tasting mat and tasting notes to help guide the event. We offer a box topper which sits on top of the wine in your box, and creates a great first impression as the box is opened.

SPECIAL OFFERS, social media challenges, invitations. Club members expect an invitation to your special events, whether virtual or live. Including it in their monthly shipment makes sense. Want to drive club members to join you on your social channels? Push them there with a selfie challenge by providing props or a contest in the club shipment. 

PRINTED BOXES: There are a number of box styles and approaches for shippers. Some companies prefer a plain brown box to discourage porch pirates, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have a delightful moment when the box is opened by printing on the interior of the box. If you have a box style in mind we can provide a cut sample for testing—even our boxes are digital, including the cutting; no tooling is required.

STICKERS/TAPE/TISSUE PAPER: going with a plain brown box but want to dress it up a bit? Slap a branded sticker on the box or use branded packing tape to seal the box. Create a giftable moment by wrapping the bottles in tissue paper. These are the small touches that can elevate your customer’s experience to something they will embrace.

MERCHANDISE: While Sandbox doesn’t resell merchandise, we all know an occasional gift (branded, of course) can go a long way in building customer loyalty. We can help you develop an insert to hold the merch, and we can refer you to some great partners for merchandise.

THANK YOU CARDS: A simple card signed by a winemaker tells the customer two things: you appreciate their business and there is a real person behind the wine. It is an easy way to help them feel like more than a number. Some wineries include Referral Cards—a beautifully printed card for the customer to send to a friend and share their “find” of your great wine.

WHAT’S NEXT—as a club member or a subscriber, include a card telling them when to expect their next shipment and a teaser about what will be in the box. This encourages them to stay in the program to ensure they receive the next enticing offer. Because we print everything digitally, we can print customer specific information on each piece—even swap out bottle images for a personalized experience.

This device can also be positioned for your company’s sustainability efforts, as in, how do I best dispose of the packaging material for recycling. Give them a reason to click on a QR code to get to your sustainability manifesto.

Or use the What’s Next device to offer a discount to reorder more of the wine they received in the current shipment—what’s a better outcome than that?

You know where else you can print a “What’s Next” device? On the inside of your shipper.

There are a lot of levers to pull to communicate with your wine club members—digital, social, phone calls—and PRINT. Only you can decide which printed device will work best for your brand and your customers; the goal is to stay in conversation with them so they became an ambassador for your wine, and a customer with great lifetime value.

Like most things about sustainability, the answer to the question of how to dispose of your cork is, “It depends.” And because wine packaging includes so many components, the considerations in sustainability are complex. 

While there are a number of efforts which exist to promote sustainable vineyards and farms, the question of sustainable packaging in wine is not typically addressed by these groups. Some of the broadly accepted sustainability efforts in wine, excluding packaging, include: 

https://www.sustainablewinegrowing.org/

https://www.lodirules.org/

https://www.sipcertified.org/

There is also the movement by Bcorps which provide guardrails for good stewardship of people, profit and the planet. Companies which join the Bcorps movement can make choices to improve the triple bottom line through a variety of measures. https://bcorporation.net/ 

If you are a winery looking to lighten your impact on the planet through improving your packaging, here are some ideas to consider. Some are incremental, some are paradigm-shifting. But any effort is worth it. 

There are a few categories of environmentally conscious options for packaging material: 

1. Made from Renewable Material 
2. Recyclable Material 
3. PCW Content Material 
4. Biodegradable Material 
5. Overall environmental footprint (weight, CO2 emissions, transportation impact) 

Renewable materials are things like natural cork and paper, including corrugated boxes. Some papers are made from crops other than trees (like hemp). Primary containers for wine made from renewable materials really are limited to glass—technically sand isn’t renewable (we can’t grow more) but it is naturally occurring.

There are paper “bottles” on the market, however, they are structured with a coating or plastic liner on the inside to provide a moisture barrier. While manufacturers claim the layers can be easily separated for recyclability, there is a healthy skepticism about the actual recycle stream capability.

(The cap and closure for these paper bottles is aluminum or plastic-based, so it too would need to be separated and sent into different recycling stream.) Much of this burden lands on the consumer, and it requires consumer education.

For ease of recyclability, containers made of one material is best—think glass with silkscreen instead of a label or direct printed aluminum. Yes, a label can go into the recycle bin, and the paper will be dissolved and removed, but if you’re using a label rated for cold box, chances are there is a poly layer in that paper, which is not recyclable in that stream.  

A shrinksleeve (made of polypropylene) on an aluminum can needs to be removed prior to recycling. So, you see the complexities.

Some consumers have homed in on the amount of post-consumer waste in materials (PCW).  There are any number of papers made with PCW, including Raflatec Vanish PCR which incorporates 90 percent post-consumer recycled content in both the PET face and the liners.  Most corrugated has a high recycled content. There are increasing levels of recycled PET available, including some closed loop suppliers—doing their own recycling of PET to create new containers. The use of PCW is invisible to the consumer, unless you tell them.  

Biodegradable materials, or compostables, is sometimes a bit of greenwashing, unless the product is certified. The Biodegradale Products Institute has formed standards against ASTM D6400 or ASTM D6868, and will certify a product accordingly.   https://www.bpiworld.org/.

There is a lot of work being done on compostable flexible packaging— essentially adding enzymes to the material to accelerate its breakdown. Other than natural cork, the most likely candidate for biodegradable material for wine is PET with enzymes, or the paper bottle with something to break down the liner. Which of course would need to be tested with your wine for integrity. 

Now, let’s consider weight, and the overall impact on emissions by looking at some common wine containers. 

Glass: between the heat to make it and the fuel to move it, glass emits an exorbitant amount of carbon dioxide. There are, of course, lighter weight glass molds to choose from. It may make sense

for an on-premise SKU to be in heavy weight glass, but if you’re exporting to another country or shipping DTC, you might consider an alternative glass. 

PET: lightweight, but unless you’re choosing recycled PET, the carbon impact on the planet is severe, along with the waste impact. Less than 30% of PET is recycled, and PET has a limited lifespan, recycling only 2-3 times before it degrades to unusable. There are educational initiatives to improve the return rate such as the Every Bottle Back Campaign. (https://www.innovationnaturally.org/plastic/)  

The upside to PET is the lightweight for shipment. If you are an all DTC winery, you might check out the Garcon https://www.garconwines.com/, a paradigm and shape shifting PET bottle designed for ease of mailing. 

Aluminum: Manufacturing emits a decent amount of carbon into the atmosphere, and requires a ton of electricity, but aluminum has about a 68% recycle rate, and there is no limit to the number of times it can be recycled. While lightweight for shipping, it can get easily damaged in transit if not properly packed. 

Bag in a Box: Analysis from a life cycle review suggest that even with the environmental impact of the non-recyclable packaging components (the spout and plastic bag), boxed wines are more sustainable than glass bottles. They fit well in shipping boxes, are relatively lightweight and can be easily recycled once disassembled. 

Aseptic (Tetrapak): A lightweight, multilayer material, made of paper, aluminum foil & plastic.  While it can be recycled, they are not always accepted curbside and may require a third partner clearinghouse.  

According to some life cycle analysts, out of all possible wine containers, the cleanest and most sustainable packaging option for wine seems to be aluminum cans or plastic-lined boxes. Of course, your considerations may be different. Compared to single use glass bottles, the impact of bag-in-box is from 60% to 90% lower. 

One additional consideration for overall environmental impact to consider, if you are printing labels, sleeves or shippers, is to choose digital printing over another print process. Digital printing allows for quick turnarounds and short runs which avoids obsolescence. Additionally, the amount of waste generated for digital printing is significantly less than flexo or litho, saving thousands and thousands of feet of material. 

Using less material is always better than using more material. Consider this even in your label sizes and consider the press configuration and waste. Sometimes reducing a label a few millimeters will allow for an additional label on the width of the paper web. 

An area of interesting research in packaging is in reusable and refillable containers. There is effort being put into auto-refill technology for many categories. Think of a stainless steel “keg” with a device measuring wine depletion.  When it hits a predefined level, a reorder is automatically sent to you to ship a new “bag” of wine for the consumer to place into the stainless steel dispenser. High volume, low footprint.

Reusable is also becoming the buzz—the old milkman approach. There is a winery in La Jolla using refillable 1 liter glass bottles decorated with silkscreen (and an electrostatic label for varietal) and closed with a swing top. Club members come and pick up their monthly wine, returning their previous month’s glass which is washed and refilled.

If you really want to lean into reusable, there is now a reusable shipper available for 750mL wine bottles. Studies show reusable is best within about 75-100 miles in terms of overall environmental impact. 

Governor Newsom has recently signed a new bill, allowing for tasting rooms to fill customers’ containers. SEE:

https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/552446361/governor-newsom-signs-legislation-supporting-sustainable-practice-in-wine-consumers-can-refill-bottles-at-tasting-rooms

To look quantitatively at what impact your initiatives might have, you can use a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool. It is a methodology that allows evaluation of the environmental performances of a product considering the whole life cycle or just a portion of its life.

Lifecycle Assessment Tools include: 

www.eiolca.net/

www.trayak.com

www.piqet.com

Finally, let’s talk consumer education: so often, even consumers who want to do the right thing don’t know how to properly dispose of an item. It is incumbent on you to tell them— especially when you are making efforts to improve your impact. They won’t know if you don’t tell them.

In North America, you can use https://how2recycle.info/ standardized labeling system that clearly communicates recycling instructions to the public.

It can be simple: for example, add a tear strip to your shrinksleeve to allow for easy removal. If you have a multipart container, it will be more complicated. You may need to direct them to a third party for proper recycling, such as Terracycle or Cork ReHarvest. 

Given limited real estate on your package, you can leverage your social media, website, and connected packaging (ie, a simple QR code on your label) directing them to your other platforms or to the third party you’ve engaged to help with your efforts.  

Terracycle helps companies large and small provide a way for consumers to return containers for recycling or reuse.  www.terracycle.com

One of the third parties for cork recycling is: www.corkforest.org/cork-reharvest.

Now, back to the question of how best to recycle that cork: 

Natural corks can be upcycled, but usually not through your curbside service. Look for third party recycling and collection boxes, like ReCORK or Cork ReHarvest. 

Synthetic or Agglomerate corks need to go in your trash bin. They are made from a non-recyclable combination of materials, and they are too small to be recovered in the recycling. 

Metal screwcaps go in the trash bin, or you may be lucky enough to have a public recycling which can handle the small item. If so, make sure to remove the screwcap from the bottle so they can be sorted correctly.

Bottom line for packaging, the customer and the environment:  A 2020 survey by the Boston Consulting Group of 15,000 consumers found that a whopping 74% said they would pay more for beverages in sustainable packaging! This means a win for people, the planet, and for profit. 

If you would like to take a deeper dive into any of the areas discussed or want help looking at how to engineer for better sustainability in your packaging, please contact kim@loupegraphics.com