Insights: Articles & Resources by Oliver Inc.
Elevating Your Brand With Oliver Inc.'s Expert Design Services
Your packaging needs to do more than simply contain your product—it must tell your story, capture attention, and drive sales. Your folding cartons serve as protective shields and powerful marketing tools that often make the critical difference at the point of purchase.
As the nation's leading independent supplier of custom paperboard packaging solutions, Oliver Inc. combines cutting-edge technology with precision engineering to create packaging designs that elevate brands and engage consumers.
So, whether you're launching a new product line or refreshing your existing packaging, our comprehensive design services help your brand stand out in increasingly competitive retail environments.
In a world where first impressions matter, your secondary packaging isn't just a container—it's your brand's most powerful ambassador.
Key takeaways:
- Oliver Inc. combines technology and experience to create folding carton designs that protect products while driving sales on retail shelves and in e-commerce.
- Industry-specific solutions address unique packaging challenges. From pharmaceuticals to cannabis, every sector gets specialized attention.
- A three-phase design process delivers results: Discovery leads to execution, then proofing.
- Multiple certifications and advanced finishing capabilities ensure exceptional quality.
- Coast-to-coast U.S. facilities enable faster turnarounds, streamlined communication, and sustainable solutions that work.
The Power of Packaging Design in Today's Market
In an era where consumers make purchase decisions in mere seconds, the visual and tactile appeal of your secondary packaging can significantly impact your market success.
When a customer encounters your product on a retail shelf or unboxes it at home, that moment of interaction can make or break their connection with your brand. This is especially true in the growing e-commerce landscape, where the unboxing experience has become a crucial touchpoint for brand engagement.
The challenge lies in creating designs that not only capture attention but fulfill crucial functional requirements. Our experience with extended gamut printing and advanced finishing techniques means we can achieve both objectives seamlessly.
Consider how different industries leverage packaging design to address unique challenges:
- In health and beauty, premium finishing effects such as foil stamping and soft-touch coatings create a luxurious unboxing experience that reinforces brand value. For example, a high-end skincare brand might combine cold foil accents with subtle embossing to create a package that reflects the premium nature of its product.
- For food and beverage brands, designs must balance visual appeal with practical considerations including barrier protection and temperature resistance. This means selecting the right paperboard grade—whether Solid Bleached Sulfate (SBS) for premium foods or Coated Natural Kraft (CNK) for products requiring superior strength—while ensuring your packaging maintains its integrity throughout the cold chain.
- Pharmaceutical packaging requires precise color consistency and anti-counterfeiting measures while maintaining regulatory compliance. Our G7 Master Certification ensures color accuracy across all print runs, while advanced security features such as specialized UV inks and tamper-evident closures protect brand integrity.
- Cannabis products need child-resistant features and clear compliance labeling without sacrificing shelf appeal. We achieve this through innovative structural designs that meet regulatory requirements while incorporating sophisticated finishing effects that elevate the brand.
- Consumer goods packaging must stand out in crowded retail environments while protecting products throughout the supply chain. This often involves creating shelf-ready packaging solutions that transition seamlessly from shipping containers to retail display, maximizing efficiency while maintaining visual impact.
The Oliver Folding Carton Design Process
Our approach to folding carton design combines meticulous attention to detail with collaborative client engagement. With several decades of experience in the printing and packaging industry, we've refined a process that ensures exceptional results while keeping you involved every step of the way.
Here's how we bring your vision to life:
Discovery Phase
We begin by understanding your brand's unique needs, challenges, and aspirations. Our team asks detailed questions about your product requirements, target audience, and competitive landscape. (It can be a lot of questions, but we want to be sure you feel understood.) We explore everything from your current packaging challenges to your future growth plans, ensuring we develop solutions that scale with your business.
During discovery, we conduct a thorough analysis of:
- Your product's protection requirements throughout the entire supply chain, from manufacturing to retail shelf
- Current market positioning and how your packaging can create competitive differentiation
- Long-term sustainability objectives and how they align with material selection and design choices
- Volume forecasts and production timelines to ensure optimal manufacturing efficiency
This initial phase establishes the foundation for designs that not only look exceptional but also perform flawlessly in your specific market.
Design Execution
Using insights from our discovery phase, our designers leverage both creativity and technical expertise to develop your packaging solution. We consider everything from structural integrity to shelf impact, ensuring every design element serves a purpose.
Our process incorporates both aesthetic and functional considerations.
- Structural Engineering: Our team develops folding carton designs that protect your product while optimizing manufacturing efficiency and reducing material waste.
- Material Selection & Testing: We evaluate various paperboard grades to identify the optimal substrate for your specific application, considering factors including strength, printability, and sustainability.
- Visual Impact: We create compelling graphics that capture attention and communicate your brand story while ensuring compatibility with our advanced printing capabilities.
We utilize state-of-the-art equipment including the Koenig & Bauer Rapida 145 57-inch seven-color press, capable of producing up to 18,000 sheets per hour with unprecedented color accuracy, alongside advanced die-cutting and finishing equipment for precise, high-quality results. Our combination of digital and flexographic printing capabilities accommodates various run sizes and specialized requirements, as well.
Client Collaboration & Proofing
Throughout the design process, we maintain open communication channels and establish checkpoints for your input. Our collaborative approach includes regular design reviews at key development stages and comprehensive production samples before full-scale manufacturing begins.
We provide:
- Detailed technical specifications for your approval
- Physical mock-ups for evaluation when needed
- Color drawdowns to ensure precise color matching
- Press checks during production runs to maintain quality control
- Post-production analysis and optimization recommendations for future runs
- Ongoing support and consultation for continuous improvement
Our proofing process ensures your vision is executed exactly as intended, with options for physical mock-ups to evaluate the tactile and visual elements of your packaging—you notice much more when you can actually handle prototypes.
Advanced Printing & Finishing Capabilities
Oliver's technical expertise is backed by numerous certifications that ensure consistent, high-quality results across every project we undertake. These certifications represent our commitment to excellence and continuous improvement in the printing and packaging industry:
- G7 Master Certification ensures precise color accuracy and consistency across all printing methods, from digital to flexographic—guaranteeing your brand colors remain true regardless of print run size or substrate.
- ISO 9001 certification demonstrates our rigorous commitment to quality management systems, ensuring every aspect of our operations meets international standards for excellence in manufacturing and customer satisfaction.
- Safe Quality Food (SQF) certification validates our stringent food safety practices and protocols, particularly crucial for food and beverage packaging, where consumer safety is paramount.
- Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certifications confirm our steadfast commitment to responsible forest management and sustainable sourcing practices, helping your brand meet increasing consumer demand for environmentally responsible packaging.
We also offer a comprehensive range of finishing options to make your folding cartons stand out on the shelf. Our advanced capabilities include:
- Spot UV coating capabilities that create selective glossy highlights and patterns, drawing attention to specific design elements while maintaining a sophisticated overall appearance
- Hot and cold foil stamping technologies add brilliant metallic accents and security features, elevating your packaging with premium decorative effects that catch the eye and enhance shelf presence
- Embossing and debossing techniques for creating subtle or dramatic tactile dimensions that engage consumers through touch, encouraging interaction with your brand
- A wide array of specialty coatings including soft-touch, glitter, and temperature-sensitive options that create unique visual and textural effects designed to enhance the consumer experience and differentiate your products
- Advanced laminating capabilities that combine different materials and finishes to achieve specific functional and aesthetic requirements while maintaining structural integrity
- Specialized anti-counterfeiting features including holographic effects and security inks that protect your brand while adding visual interest
Sustainable Folding Carton Design Solutions
Gone are the days when sustainable packaging meant sacrificing visual appeal or structural integrity—or having to accept much higher production costs.
We begin with right-size packaging optimization, a systematic approach that analyzes your product's exact dimensions and protection requirements, using only as much packaging material as needed to keep it secure. This comprehensive process minimizes material usage while maximizing shipping efficiency.
The result? Significant cost savings throughout your supply chain and a reduced environmental footprint. Plus, you avoid the so-called “air tax” that comes with shipping packages that contain superfluous air pockets.
In addition to optimization, we offer an expanding portfolio of sustainable substrate alternatives. For instance, hemp-based and sugarcane-based paperboards provide excellent printing surfaces. These innovative materials reduce dependence on traditional forest products without compromising quality.
Our technical team meticulously evaluates each option. Through careful testing and analysis, we identify sustainable materials that meet your specific performance requirements.
Every package we design considers end-of-life implications. No detail is overlooked.
Your folding cartons must be easily recycled through standard waste streams, so we carefully select inks, coatings, and decorative effects that won't impede the recycling process. It's a complex balance.
For example, we prioritize the use of FSC- and SFI-certified materials, sourced from responsibly managed forests that meet stringent environmental and social standards. This certification matters. It assures your environmentally conscious consumers that your packaging supports sustainable forestry practices.
The landscape of environmental claims and certifications can be daunting. We help you navigate it. Our expertise ensures your sustainable packaging efforts are properly communicated to consumers while complying with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines for environmental marketing.
Trust matters to today's eco-conscious customers.
They seek brands that demonstrate genuine commitment to environmental stewardship, and we help you build that trust through thoughtful, sustainable design.
Choose Oliver Inc. as Your Domestic Printing & Packaging Partner
As a domestic supplier with multiple facilities across the United States, we offer advantages that international manufacturers simply can't match.
Our strategic locations in Ohio, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia provide coast-to-coast coverage, ensuring responsive service regardless of your location. We’re always a little more than a stone’s throw away from you. This nationwide presence, combined with our commitment to domestic production, creates distinct advantages for your brand, including:
- Easier communication and collaboration throughout the design process
- Reduced shipping costs and carbon footprint through optimized logistics and shorter transportation distances from our facilities to your operations
- Local support and expertise when you need it, with teams ready to respond within your time zone
- Simplified supply chain management that eliminates the complexities of international shipping, customs clearance, and cross-border logistics, resulting in more predictable delivery times and fewer supply chain disruptions
- Direct quality control oversight through immediate access to our manufacturing facilities, ensuring your packaging meets the highest standards of excellence
Whether you're launching a new product or refreshing existing packaging, Oliver Inc.'s design expertise helps your brand stand out in today's competitive market.
