Glad you are tackling this problem. I run a company that rebrands and does some ODM designs in China. Getting packaging quotes in the US has been a frustrating and confusing process.
Here's a few reasons I still get all my packaging done in china:
1. Instruction Manuals. Ever tried to have them printed to go with your box designs? Box designers are typically not "full service" in that respect. Here are two examples of instruction manuals that I need:
a) High gloss, multi-page booklet. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0123/9252/files/Ambassador... b) Single folded piece of paper: http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0123/9252/files/instruction...
2. Foam inserts. Offer me paper inserts to hold my product or cut EVA foam.
As a small business owner you need full service to make your offer attractive. Foam cutting may be more difficult but please let customers print small instruction manuals on paper or folded booklets at reasonable prices.
Have you folks seen the bags that Teespring ships with? All cool branded logos and such on them. Do you imagine that you'll be offering something like this? To me, it seems by selling branded courier bags like that would mean people purchase in bulk from you and can be used for more rather than just focusing on boxes. (I imagine there'd be a whole lot less overhead and such. But I'm no expert!)
They also ship air fresher stuff in their bags. I imagine that would be a pretty neat thing to have with your service!
Best of luck. I'll be keeping an eye on this one.
EDIT: Have you guys seen this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLDA2miW7gg I've got a few friends that sell their music on vinyl, and they would literally go crazy and throw money at you if they could get something like in that video, but branded etc. (sorry if these suggestions have been put into the idea bin already!)
- from your configurator, it's not 100% clear where each bit of info from the Text form goes on the box and if they're optional or not
- the sample boxes on your site appear to show a mark only logo, no text (judging from its side placement on LaunchBox and Mini boxes). in this particular case, it makes sense that a Brand/Company/Product name at the very least would have to be additionally printed.
1) What happens when a user insists on printing a more complex logo containing both a mark and text typeset in their preferred typeface?
- It is enough to just upload a flattened vectorised file and simply leave the Brand Name and/or Tagline field(s) empty?
2) What file types do you accept for the logo?
2) ai, eps, svg, png, jpg, pdf... anything really. But preferably vector graphics (will give best print resolution)
Incidentally, I'd love to be able to ship a bunch of product off to Level and have them frame and drop-ship my prints (hint, hint!)
Also, kinda nitpicky but still, while the page is loading it looks like this which is quite ugly: https://i.imgur.com/dIBdD5g.png
People are going to be put off by a by what looks like a portmanteau of "Paki" and some word ending in "ble".
Large numbers of people, I suspect.
Gee, let's make up a venture name by adding a common suffix to an ethnic slur!
in case you're curious:
The name we selected was "Packable" = packaging + enable/capable/etc.
But the domain was already taken. We searched for alterations of that until we landed on pakible.com being available.
Good luck, though! Whatever bumps you hit, you will sort out along the way.
One good thing is that the name's phonology doesn't have the issue; just the spelling. Phonetically, it's just "packable".
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Paki
Starting with the very first sentence under "Usage notes".
In summary, a strict prefix of some place name or nationality is not automatically a harmless contraction. For instance, "Jap" is not a word which has exactly the same nuance as "person of Japanese descent".
He doesn't mention the use of the word Paki by neo-nazi far-right racists.
Edit: in the UK it's almost always a slur. I can see how in other places it's just an abbreviation.
