Hearthstone Candle Co. · Packaging · sample engagement
A box system, color-coded by collection
28 placements in 90 days · shipping damage 4% → 0.6%
The brief
Hearthstone Candle Co. pours soy candles in three collections of four scents and is moving from craft fairs into gift shops. Its kraft tuck boxes are unbranded, and shipping damage runs 4%.
Gift-shop buyers want shelf-ready packaging with a collection logic they can merchandise; 60% of sales are gifts.
The brief: one die per box size (two sizes), digital print short runs, an insert that doubles as shipping protection, and collection color-coding.
Constraints: One die per box size (two sizes) · digital print short runs · insert doubles as shipping protection · collection color-coding required.
How it was made
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Discovery
The unbranded kraft tuck boxes won the craft-fair table but stall on a gift-shop shelf, where buyers want a collection they can merchandise. Shipping damage ran 4%, and 60% of sales are gifts — so the box is the gift, not just the wrapper.
Shelf audit + findings. -
Strategy
A box system color-coded by collection — three collections of four scents on one structure — with an insert that doubles as shipping protection. Buyers merchandise a whole collection at a glance. Gate ① signed.
Collection system + protective insert. -
Concept
Three directions: a Collection Band system, illustrated scenes, and a die-cut window box. Illustration needed new art per scent; the window's die-cut weakened the structure and meant more breakage — the opposite of the brief. The band system won.
Three directions — rejections preserved. -
Design
The tuck-box dieline, a molded insert that cradles the jar with no extra void fill, and the collection band palette — Hearth, Grove, Dusk. One structure, recolored bands, instantly shelf-legible by collection.
Dieline + insert + collection bands. -
Production
One die per size across two sizes, digital print for short runs with no plate cost, the insert specified as molded-pulp shipping protection, and printed bands rather than stickers — all drop- and compression-tested with the insert in place.
Production spec — two dies, protective insert. -
Results — how we measured
Placements came from the rep, damage from returns, attach from the register: 28 new gift-shop placements in 90 days, shipping damage from 4% to 0.6%, and a 33% candle-plus-matches attach. Demonstrative; cards below.
Results instrument (demonstrative).
The deliverable, live
This is the working deliverable itself — not a mockup of it.
Open full screen ↗Results demonstrative data
- 28gift-shop placements in 90 days
- 0.6%shipping damage (from 4%)
- 33%candle + matches attach
- 2dies run the whole line
“Buyers used to squint at our kraft boxes. Now they order a whole collection by color, and almost nothing arrives broken.”
Founder persona, Hearthstone Candle Co. — demonstration quote
In the world
Where the system lives once it ships — shelf, hands, and street. photography in production
