Insights: Articles & Resources by Oliver Inc.
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 the 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 printing and fulfillment.
Key takeaways:
- Oliver takes a human-centric approach to folding carton design, guiding clients from initial discovery through production and fulfillment with empathy and expertise at every stage.
- The Oliver design process begins with thorough discovery conversations to understand your brand's unique needs, then moves to collaborative ideation where structural integrity meets eye-catching aesthetics.
- Flexible proofing options—from secure digital platforms with 3D visualizations to physical mock-ups—ensure you approve every detail before production begins.
- With multiple U.S. facilities and diverse printing capabilities including offset lithography, flexography, and digital printing, Oliver delivers both large and small print runs with precision and consistency.
- As a comprehensive, one-stop packaging partner, Oliver handles everything from structural design and material selection to inventory management and logistics coordination, eliminating multi-vendor complications while ensuring regulatory compliance across industries.
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.
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 a 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 (including Ohio, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York), 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.
A Comprehensive Packaging Approach: From Concept to Delivery
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.
Instead, Oliver serves as your single point of contact throughout the entire journey.
Structural Excellence in All Phases of Folding Carton Design
Our experienced design team brings deep technical expertise to every folding carton project. We balance aesthetic appeal with practical functionality.
Will your package need to withstand freezing temperatures? Does it require tamper-evident features? How will it display on retail shelves? Would you like to integrate connected packaging into your design?
These considerations inform our design process, resulting in solutions that not only protect your products, but maximize shelf impact.
Oliver Guides You Through All the Important Materials Selection Considerations
Navigating the wide array of paperboard options can be overwhelming.
SBS or CUK? Recycled content or virgin fiber? Enviro+100 or Enviro-FBB Bleached? What about specialty coatings or linings? Should you consider using sustainable paperboard alternatives such as hemp or cotton-based fillers?
Oliver's specialists help you select the optimal substrate for your specific needs. We'll walk you through the benefits of each option. So, whether you're seeking premium appearance, enhanced durability, or something more environmentally friendly, we ensure your material choice aligns with both your brand values and practical requirements.
Supercharge Your Packaging by Stacking Printing Capabilities
Our diverse printing capabilities accommodate projects of all sizes and complexity levels.
Need a small test run before a major launch? We can do that. Looking for extended gamut printing to achieve vibrant, eye-catching colors? We excel at that, too.
Our G7 certification guarantees color consistency across all your packaging and marketing materials, preserving your brand identity regardless of production method or run size.
Take Advantage of Premium Finishing Capabilities
Stand out on crowded shelves with Oliver's extensive finishing options. From elegant hot foil stamping to tactile embossing, from attention-grabbing spot UV printing to revealing window patches—these premium embellishments create differentiation that captures consumer attention in competitive retail environments.
Your folding cartons become more than mere containers; they transform into powerful marketing tools that communicate your brand's quality and attention to detail.
Experience Unrivaled Quality Control
Excellence is non-negotiable at Oliver.
Our rigorous quality assurance protocols verify that every folding carton meets our exacting standards. Internationally recognized certifications, including SFI, FSC, and SQF, provide additional assurance of our commitment to quality.
We inspect, we verify, we deliver excellence—every time.
Our Inventory Management Solutions Optimize Your Supply Chain
Why tie up valuable warehouse space with packaging materials? Oliver's sophisticated inventory management systems optimize your supply chain, reducing warehousing requirements while minimizing stockout risks and excess inventory concerns.
Avoid Logistics Nightmares
As your domestic packaging partner, Oliver simplifies logistics, giving you a true turnkey experience.
Our national footprint, with manufacturing centers strategically located throughout the United States, ensures timely delivery while reducing transportation distances. The result? Lower shipping costs, reduced carbon emissions (vital for reaching the growing number of environmentally minded consumers), and faster time-to-market for your products.
This integrated approach eliminates the common pitfalls of multi-vendor production: communication breakdowns, timeline discrepancies, and inconsistent quality. By consolidating your entire packaging process under Oliver's expert management, you free yourself to focus on core business priorities.
We handle the details. We ensure precision. We deliver results.
For brands navigating complex regulatory environments—particularly in food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, or cannabis—our comprehensive approach provides an additional advantage. Our team's deep industry knowledge ensures your packaging remains compliant with all relevant regulations without compromising on marketing impact or brand expression.
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.
