‘Crafting’ as a hobby has experienced a massive growth over the past 5 years, and the crafting industry has grown alongside it. While other sectors have suffered there seems to be no end in sight for companies who provide for hobbyists. According to Paula Gorry, UK Business Development Manager of Stampin’ Up! UK there are a number of reasons for this, including crafting’s therapeutic effect and the sense of pride at the completing of a project. However perhaps the most important contributors are the need for a secondary or tertiary income and the availability of an increasing number of platforms that allow products to be sold on line easily and quickly.
At the forefront of this industry are Antex Craft who have 70 years experience manufacturing heated craft tools for use in card making, fabric distressing, wood-burning, and many other unique craft applications. The company, based in Plymouth, have recently developed a product called ‘The Ant’, which is described as “A safe, low voltage tool designed to enable crafters to be creative with a variety of medias such as leatherwork, hot-fix gems, stencils, paper craft, wax art, fabric and card foiling.”
GWD Ltd were approached by Antex Craft to create a box for the ant that would have three specific functions:
- As presentation packaging, suitable for a product of this type in the marketplace
- As a functional box that could be retained for the myriad additional fixings and tools that come with the product, and
- As a form of ‘keepsake’ box which would be sufficiently aesthetically pleasing that the end consumer would want to keep it on display
We have touched on this final point before in this blog. Packaging like this can be retained by a customer and has the benefit of keeping the company at the ‘front of mind,’ hence inspiring customer loyalty.
The creation of the box was relatively simple, although it looked and felt suitably impressive with the brand printed on the front and a smooth magnetic closure. The box has been matt laminated to help with its longevity, and give it a high-quality feel. The company’s contact details, including their website were printed on the base of the packaging, making it simple for the end-user to re-order or get in touch with Antex as required.
If you can see the benefit of this type of high quality – but functional – presentation packaging, please get in touch with us today. Our team of experience designers and cardboard engineers are here to help.
Noel Greenwood is the Managing Director of GWD Ltd, the designers and manufacturers of presentation and promotional packaging. You can reach him on (01279) 416093 or at the company’s website: www.gwd.ltd.uk