The Packaging Was Making My Business Feel Like Someone Else’s

I don’t think I realized how much my packaging was making OrgaNick feel like a completely different business…&!that’s a weird thing to admit.

There was nothing wrong with my old packaging. It worked. The cards got wrapped with a corresponding envelope. They arrived at someone’s house. Nothing was broken. Nothing was falling apart. (Let me add, ONCE I figured out my secure packaging.) The job was getting done!

But somewhere along the way, I started looking at the way an OrgaNick order arrived and thinking…this doesn’t feel like me.

My cards are all about the little things; The paper, texture, weight, envelope. The way it feels when you pick it up. The fact it came from a one-man paper studio.

I was putting all of that ‘feeling’ inside packaging that felt… pretty standard!

WHAT WAS THE OLD WAY?

My old packaging wasn’t terrible at all. It was just functional. A card would go into a clear cellophane bag, usually with a standard white envelope, and then get a fairly large sticker slapped on the outside. It did what it needed to do.

But there I sat, thinking of the experience of actually receiving a card from OrgaNick Studio.

The packaging is the first thing you experience.

You haven’t touched the card yet. You haven’t felt the paper. You haven’t opened the envelope. You haven’t seen the little details I spent way too much time thinking about. You’re experiencing the packaging first. And if that first impression feels generic, it doesn’t really matter how special the card inside is!!

That realization kind of messed with me 😬

I wanted the outside to feel like the inside.

So I started making changes!

• The clear cellophane became glassine.
• The standard white envelopes became kraft.
• I added a branded belly band.
• A little ‘o’ sticker.

Nothing revolutionary. None of these things are particularly groundbreaking on their own. But together, they started to feel like OrgaNick.

That’s really what I was chasing. Not something ‘fancier’. Not ‘more-expensive’ looking. Just more me. More OrgaNick Studio.

OrgaNick needed to feel more tactile. A little more analog. Like someone who is obsessed with paper packaged your order. Because that’s exactly what happened.

What I hope the packaging portrays: the idea of “You probably like paper, too” & this being a little paper object that somebody is going to receive, open, touch, read, and hopefully give to someone they love.

The packaging is part of that experience. The product isn’t always ‘just’ the product. Thats probably the biggest lesson I’ve taken from all of this. 

I could spend (& have spent) an embarrassing amount of time thinking about the exact paper stock, the printing, the size, the envelope, the artwork & the wording of everything I print. That won’t ever stop. 😂

And now, when an OrgaNick order leaves the studio, I finally feel like the outside of the package is telling the same story as what’s inside!! 

And honestly? That’s a really good feeling. 

 

Paper has personality. So do you.