Packaging Solutions
Recently established non alcoholic spirits brand Strykk is the brainchild of Alex Carlton from Funkin Cocktails. Alex is a bar world veteran with over two decades of experience under his belt. Back in September 2020, Alex was in need of help with his drinks packaging and came across the Saxon Packaging website.
Since then, Emma Bishop, internal sales coordinator at Saxon Packaging, has been working closely with Alex and his team to create the perfect drinks packaging solutions for Strykk. Together with the team at Saxon, Emma has been able to support the brand in realising ideas and goals and transform these into outstanding packaging designs.
To date, the company has helped the Strykk team with 15 packaging orders and is working on some new designs for future plans.
One of the very first projects was for the single bottle premium drinks packaging. The brand had visions of a simple gin gift box, but needed it to encompass a luxurious, premium feel and stand out from the fierce competition.
Strykk asked for a packaging solution that would not only raise brand awareness, but also deliver a moment of excitement to customers when they receive their orders. In other words, it was looking for ‘the perfect unboxing experience’.
Alex and the Strykk team were blown away by the new premium drinks boxes.
In the early stages of this project, Emma spent a lot of time getting the structural packaging design just right. Working closely with the in-house design team at Saxon Packaging, a series of design samples were delivered to Strykk before settling on a preferred style.
In the midst of all this creativity, there were some challenges around which packaging material would be most suitable. At the time, the print process for the project had not yet been decided, so it was difficult to choose which material grade and flute profile would work best. The specialist packaging team discussed all the options available and the ultimate goal for this project. Originally, the premium single bottle gift packs were intended to be printed digitally. However, after reviewing the final artwork, the desired quantity of units and the overall purpose of the packaging, Strykk opted to go for the more cost effective print process – litho.
With Strykk’s drinks packaging designed and ready to go, it was time to consider how these boxes would arrive to the customer and how that wow factor unboxing experience would be created. The single bottle gift boxes were accompanied by an ‘outer’.
With the unboxing experience at the forefront of the design process for this packaging solution, Strykk strategically created artwork for the outer that was relatively understated compared to the box that would be packed inside. The effect of this was that Strykk could now reveal a surprise and delight experience to those customers who opened the outer packaging with an extravagant litho printed gift box inside. This fulfilled the design brief’s requirements and resulted in a perfect unboxing experience.
Emma said, ‘This was a great project to work on. Whilst it did have its challenges along the way, we worked through them all. The result of Strykk’s litho printed packaging is one that is really amazing and will no doubt stand out amongst competitors.’
Molly Bray from the Strykk team added, ‘We were really pleased with it! The quality of the print was spot on and we can’t wait to start sending them out to our customers.’
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