Emparo ships thousands of plain brown boxes across Switzerland every week, and right now that box says nothing about the brand behind it. This project turns the shipping box, tape and paper filler into one coherent, branded system that reads as calm, professional and Swiss at the exact moment a customer opens their delivery, whether that box is arriving for the first time or heading back out as a return.
Overview & Goals
- Design a single branded system across three box sizes, paper tape and paper filler that works within a strict one or two colour flexo constraint on brown board
- Make the unboxing moment feel deliberately Swiss, minimal and trustworthy rather than anonymous
- Keep every mandatory element, company address, recycling mark, return panel and carrier label space, cleanly integrated rather than bolted on
- Ensure the design still makes sense and looks intentional when the same box is reused to send a return
Budget & Timeline
Design and artwork development runs through summer, with final dielines and print ready files delivered to the box supplier by end of August. The first production run follows in October, leaving no room for late changes once files are handed off.
Packaging production
- Products
- Shipping boxes in three sizes covering about ninety percent of orders, paper tape, and the paper filler. Not the products themselves, we do not manufacture.
- Formats
- Shipping box
- Material & finish
- Recycled brown corrugated, single wall for the two smaller sizes and double wall for the largest. Uncoated throughout, no plastic tape, no printed inner liner that would stop it being recycled as paper.
- Print process
- Flexo
- Mandatory content
- Company name and address, the recycling mark, the return address panel, and space for the carrier label. The return instructions stay on the paper insert, not on the box.
- Where it's seen
- Handed over at the door or left in a parcel box, opened at home, and in about eight percent of cases used again to send a return.
Target Audience
The audience is anyone receiving a parcel from emparo's Swiss warehouse, met at the door, in a parcel box, or unboxing at home. For most of them this box is the only physical touchpoint they will ever have with the brand.
Brand Story & Voice
Emparo sells everyday home, kitchen, tech, sport and garden products online across Switzerland. The brand promise is straightforward reliability, so the box should feel like a natural extension of a clean, efficient, no nonsense online experience rather than a marketing surface.
Style
Colour
Measured on the material you sent
References & Moodboard
1 source captured. Click any of them to see it full size.
In the client's own words
Every order leaves in a plain brown box with a sticker on it. It is the only physical contact most customers ever have with us, and right now it says nothing. We want a proper shipping box in three sizes, the paper tape, and the filler, designed as one system. It has to be cheap enough to use on every order, recyclable without separation, and it has to survive the Swiss postal system looking like something rather than nothing.
Scope & Deliverables
- Dieline layouts and print artwork for all three box sizes
- Paper tape print design
- Paper filler print design
- One page flexo application guide covering ink limits, placement and the carrier label clear zone
- Print ready files handed to the box supplier
Do's & Don'ts
Do
- Design for one or two flexo colours on uncoated brown board, that is the real constraint
- Leave a clean, clearly defined area for the carrier label on every box size
- Keep the current brand palette so the box stays recognisably emparo
- Design so the same print still makes sense when the box is reused for a return
Don't
- Do not print anything on the inside that makes the box look emptier than it is
- Do not use any finish, coating or plastic tape that would stop the box being recycled as paper
- Do not put return instructions on the box itself, that content stays on the paper insert
- Do not crowd or obscure the recycling mark, address panel or carrier label space