What Is the Oliver Folding Carton Design Process?

Folding cartons are one of the most popular packaging solutions, for good reason.

This paperboard-based packaging is a dynamic tool for marketing your brand, and incredibly effective at storing and protecting your products.

By blending sound structure with eye-grabbing graphic design, folding cartons ought to be a pillar for any brand, but what does their design process look like when working with Oliver? Taking a very human-centric approach to design, Oliver is a consistent companion, from the earliest discovery conversations and ideating your design, to proofing and production.

Here’s what you can expect from a veteran packaging manufacturer that cares deeply about its clients.

The Discovery Phase

Oliver starts the conversation seeking to clearly understand what matters most to you, your goals, pain points, and values. We hear your ideas and help turn them into the right printing and packaging solutions to meet your needs.

You can expect to get a lot of questions from us. That’s because we care, and want to ensure you feel like we know where you’re coming from, and what you hope to accomplish. We’re also incredibly curious and passionate, so be prepared for an incredibly thorough exploration into what animates your brand, motivates your team, and excites your customers.

We genuinely want to know.

Executing Your Design

Empathy is at the heart of great design. We live by that. Once we have a good feel for what you want to achieve, we’ll ideate with you toward a design that elevates your brand and inspires everyone involved.

Folding cartons play many important roles, both protecting your products and serving as a vital marketing vehicle. They also need to inform and sell. Given these many considerations, it takes a team-wide effort for their design to truly succeed.

Oliver understands there is no one-size-fits-all approach, as each industry has its own safety standards and best practices for effective design.

Fortunately, we work in most commercial industries, including food and beverage, cannabis, consumer goods, health and beauty, and pharmaceuticals, to name a few. We know what works and what doesn’t. And we’re always looking to innovate and run with new ideas. (We have many brilliant customers whose game-changing concepts we love actualizing.)

Whether you have a mostly complete idea and want us to help execute it, or you’re in the early stages of brainstorming, we can help you get across the production floor finish line.

Once we have a solid grasp of your folding carton design, we shift toward proofing it.

Proofing in One Secure, Easy-to-Access Place

To make the proofing process easier, we employ a completely secure digital platform to upload files and organize complex projects. Proofs remain in one place, for easy collaboration as you partner with Oliver’s experienced packaging design team. This can include soft proofs, 3D visualizations, and the ability to download or view projects online.

On the other hand, if you prefer working with hard proofs you can touch and move around with your own hands, we’re happy to accommodate that, as well. Sometimes it’s hard to beat the experience of maneuvering physical proofs next to other packaging options.

We can utilize Standard Epson and Epson SureColor S80600 proofs with nine colors (including silver and white) that can be employed on specialty stocks.

You can also get the feel of the folding cartons with mock-ups and digitally printed samples before finalizing details. Oliver offers you the proofing format and working style that best suits your needs so you can begin packaging production as soon as possible.

Production in Your Preferred Printing Method

With several facilities across the United States, Oliver can print and manufacture folding cartons right in your neck of the woods. That’s the joy of collaborating with a domestic manufacturer. Forming the basis of our strategy, we produce folding cartons, marketing collateral, labels, and custom packaging with unrivaled precision and color quality (including extended gamut printing).

Unlike smaller shops that have a limited variety of press formats or massive outfits that work only with large print runs, Oliver’s production facilities are filled with a wide range of standard and specialized capabilities, while remaining agile enough to suit smaller print runs.

From offset lithography and flexography to digital printing options, we can work in your preferred production method, including finishing, folding, and gluing. Ultimately, we’re here to ensure you receive the best packaging solution possible.

Oliver is your one-stop shop: designing, manufacturing, shipping, managing inventory, and fulfilling print orders so you don’t have to coordinate with multiple partners to achieve that brilliant folding carton design you’re after.

Oliver Keeps Communication Open

Our relationship with clients doesn’t stop once your folding cartons leave our facilities or find their way onto retail shelves. We keep communication open in case you have any lingering questions, need additional guidance, or ever want to discuss potential packaging ideas for your next project.

Oliver has always been a purpose-driven company, and that includes making a long-lasting positive impact on our employees, customers, and communities. It’s why sustainability is so important to us, but also explains why we dedicate so many of our resources to customer relationships. You matter to us.

We’re here for you. When you succeed, so do we.

Oliver is a printing and packaging partner with more than 250 years of combined experience helping industry-leading companies elevate their brands through compelling designs and cutting-edge technology. Contact us today to learn more about how Oliver can help design your next folding cartons.