Packaging Design

How we design the perfect packaging for your supply chain

Trillora is more than a packaging design agency, so we know packaging doesn’t exist in isolation. Our team considers your entire supply chain to engineer packaging that’s protective, efficient and cost-effective.

Optimize your packaging

Don't overlook the importance of thoughtful packaging design

Expert packaging designers can outperform your current suppliers

Packaging sometimes gets overlooked as a means to an end, rather than a priority. That’s a mistake that can drive up costs and inefficiencies in your supply chain.

Optimized transport and retail packaging design can produce real results for apparel, footwear, outdoor, and athletic brands who ship from Asia. Trillora ensures that every layer of packaging works in tandem to generate ROI for your brand.

Factory suppliers and packaging design agencies don’t.

The risks of poor packaging design

Everything the Trillora Packaging Solutions team does is centered on helping brands address these costly challenges.

Higher freight costs

Higher damage and shrink rates

Warehouse inefficiency

Inconsistent quality

Poor customer experience

Larger carbon footprint

How we stand apart from other packaging companies

Trillora uses a proven approach centered on optimized design principles, a robust and high-quality supply network in Asia, and meeting clients’ specific needs and objectives every step of the way. At Trillora, we:

Employ a team of designers, engineers and supply chain experts across several continents, with a focus on China, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia.
Craft packaging designs and select materials based on a client's needs, products, and supply chain.
Size packaging to maximize freight density. This allows more units of product to fit in each shipment, which lowers freight costs.
Design packaging to provide the necessary amount of protection for shipments to safely endure the rigors of an international supply chain.
Source packaging from a trusted and audited supplier network to enforce consistent quality standards.

Trillora_Packaging Design_How We Stand Apart

Retail and Transport Optimization

Our methodology produces benefits across packaging types

Transport packaging benefits

Cube density

Efficient carton dimensions maximize packaging efficiency inside sea-going shipping containers and eliminate excess air space.

Product protection

Use of sustainable corrugated materials protect products in transit, minimizing avoidable damage.

MOC re-use

Stronger master outer cartons (MOCs) from Asia can be reused for secondary over-land or air transit to retail stores in destination markets.

DC efficiency

Packaging is designed to make the most of your warehouses, accounting for storage, stacking, retrieval. and more.

Retail packaging benefits

Visual appeal

In addition to ensuring the product arrives in good condition, it should also make a positive impression at the point-of-sale, where consumer decisions are influenced by shelf appeal. Our creative retail packaging solutions turn heads and promote your brand in competitive retail environments.

Brand consistency

We manage suppliers to ensure the same packaging materials, printing processes and quality standards are used and adhered to, resulting in quality and consistency for every packaging solution. Our quality assurance teams on the ground promote consistent quality across locations.

Sustainability

Shrink your brand’s carbon footprint by reducing packaging weight, eliminating foam and plastics, incorporating recycled materials, reducing water consumption, and right-sizing packaging for shipping efficiency. Trillora can address sustainability in both retail and transport packaging.

A tried-and-true design process

Trillora assesses numerous factors of a client’s business and supply chain before our designers ever head to the drawing board. This process ensures we are able to produce the best possible outcomes. Every client varies depending on their needs. These are the key stages of Trillora’s packaging design process. Let’s go through each of these steps in detail.

Understanding your challenges
Packaging analysis
Concept development
Technical development

Understanding challenges Packaging analysis Concept development Technical development

Step 1

Understanding your packaging challenges

During this phase, our team will gain a deeper understanding of existing packaging, product fit and protection, production processes, and business goals. Trillora has worked with many clients in both hard and soft goods for nearly 25 years, giving our team a keen eye for spotting inefficiencies and opportunities.

Challenges and frustrations with your current retail and transport packaging:

Are you experiencing high freight costs?
Are you trying to meet brand sustainability goals?
Has packaging created inefficiencies in your warehouses?
Is your packaging visually unappealing?
Are product damage and returns a problem?

The value of this stage:

The answers we receive during this process help ensure that the packaging our team ultimately designs will meet expectations and perform well within the client’s specific supply chain.

Step 2

Conducting a packaging analysis

During this phase, we use material analysis and performance testing to identify strengths and weaknesses of existing materials and designs.  We also assess your graphics to ensure that they  are designed to be cost-effective and replicable by  the production network.

This phase may include a DC audit, where our design team will assess factors like:

Environmental conditions that could impact performance
How boxes are stacked
How products are folded or packed

Testing and measurement

Trillora will conduct tests on your existing packaging, which may include an edge crush test, burst strength test, and a bending stiffness test. We will also determine the strength and thickness of your paper-based materials. Our tests and analysis tell us how your packaging withstands typical supply chain activity such as stacking, humidity, handling, and storage.

The value of this stage:

Conceptual designs align with distribution conditions
We identify materials that perform best for your supply chain
Designs strike a balance that’s cost-effective and best meets your needs and goals.

Step 3

Concept development

During concept development, Trillora’s structure and graphics teams work together to create design concepts and perform initial validation testing to make sure they perform as expected.

Bringing working concepts to the client

Trillora’s experts create and conduct initial validation testing on several packaging design concepts, aiming to fit products in as efficiently as possible, achieve proper product protection, and maximize usage of box blanksize.

We then meet with brand representatives to present our design solutions. We make any necessary modifications to meet brand needs.

The value of this stage:

Customers are presented with concepts that not only look appealing, but that are already tested, making any unexpected problems far less likely.
Customers get to give feedback on the concepts, ensuring that final designs will meet their specific needs and objectives.

Trillora_Packaging Design_Concept Development_Working Concepts

Step 4

Technical development

During the technical development stage, we prepare approved concept drawings and files for the packaging producer. The aim is to ensure every detail is covered so the producer can execute the new solution precisely as the client expects.

Structure

The Trillora team checks structure files to ensure everything about the design works as intended. The boxes fold correctly, flaps don’t cover up barcodes, and the product fits as it should.

We also make sure the package structure is simple enough to facilitate assembly at a commercial scale.

Our team in China can conduct validation and transit testing to verify that the new materials and designs perform as our prior rounds of testing said they would.

We send packaging to the customer for fit testing. The customer assembles the packaging and checks the size. Onsite support is available for this process. Any needed changes are made, then the customer approves the design.

Graphics

Our graphics team incorporates brand guidelines, copy and imagery to produce a print file. We consider a range of information to produce a packaging print file that’s production-ready, including:

Commercial printing method (typically lithographic or flexographic)
A dieline: the structure file to ensure proper orientation

Our graphics process ensures that:

Correct graphics are used and that they’re oriented on the structure properly
Images print at the correct resolutions and color profile
Colors are specified correctly
Special finishes are correctly set up to follow brand intent

The value of this stage:

Trillora’s work on packaging structure and graphics is all designed to ensure that packaging designs work as intended, can be assembled in a commercial environment, and meet the client’s expectations.

Packaging production begins

At this point, Trillora launches into the packaging production process, leveraging our large network of vetted packaging suppliers in Asia. This can include:

First article sampling and hand-off of files.
Pilot production, pilot product review, and interaction with your OEMs.
Setting up production at OEM locations and conducting on-site inspections.

Throughout these stages, Trillora is designing and assessing packaging with brand objectives at top of mind. Our breadth of capabilities helps ensure all of your packaging – including retail and transport – are working as a system to provide value to your brand.

Trillora_Packaging Design_Production Begins

What's next

Drive results through packaging

Are you shipping from Asia and struggling to make desired and beneficial changes to your packaging program? Trillora has helped numerous companies with those overhauls, with impressive results. Connect with our team to learn more about how we can guide the way.

Let's chat