March 25, 2019
On the way to a new adventure, a young couple packs their belongings into boxes. On Christmas morning, the floor is decorated with opened boxes. On your front porch, a recently delivered order sits in a box. Many people get their packages and don’t think twice about how their product actually arrived. They don’t think about the craftsmanship required to create the perfect box, whether it be for a birthday present, a business marketing strategy, or even for a mass production. Box factories around the world are quiet competitors, acting as an integral part of both business success and personal joy. In the corrugated industry, Skybox Packaging uses recycled paper to make the old brand-new. We turn simple paper into a complicated six-color aqueous-coated 20-piece point-of-purchase (POP) display that has reached the end of its promotional period at a supermarket, or the regular slotted container (RSC) that protected your online order that was delivered to your door without any damage to the product inside. Designers and manufacturers alike become a team to get the product from our floor in quality condition for the multipurpose tasks that boxes so often serve. The technology we have today also allows for more cost-effective, speedy production. We have the capability to develop high-quality products with low-quality paper. Despite the nature of the materials, we can still maintain the integrity of products through technology, hard work, and the well-oiled machine of a successful factory. A day at Skybox begins with prepping the die room for deliveries and ordering tools for future orders. We also meet with sales representatives, customer service members, or new clientele. Employees at Skybox work on various tasks throughout the day. For example, the design team attends daily production meetings to cover daily agendas, hot orders that need to be expedited, customer concerns, and new item reviews. The future designers on our team will face an emphasis on understanding that every package or display presents its own set of challenges, each with an array of possible solutions. Designers are expected to use all the resources from senior production employees, die suppliers, and machine suppliers. They search the internet for POP displays to replicate images when customers may supply only a sketch or picture. As a designer there is much to consider, such as cost-effectiveness for the customer, your company’s ability to produce a particular item, how to effectively print art, and to always maintain clear communication about customer objectives. Corrugated design is a fulfilling career, as you never stop learning new ways to design effectively. It is also a rewarding experience to see items in retail that you were instrumental in producing. Corrugated design can be fast-paced and enjoyable, but you must embrace a fluid lifestyle. Life changes quickly in the corrugated industry because an item designed months ago could become a hot rush item today.
Scott Neff is a senior designer at Skybox Packaging. He can be reached at sneff@skyboxpackaging.com.
