Penn & Beech started out as an upscale pour-your-own scented candle using all kinds of aromas and organic oils to achieve the scent a customer wants, and it really took off quickly. It’s popular for date nights and small groups of friends to have a social night out while making scented candles. This has quickly evolved into the company also making bespoke scented candles for business clients such as area hotels and corporate events.

The challenge on the DIY side of the operation is that once your candle is poured, it’s in liquid form and is not safe to be transported. It needs a full twenty-four hours to cool, which means customers must return to the store in order to pick up their final product when it’s ready.

The client realized they needed some kind of nice box in which to place customer candles, that would also carry their branding. There are also two different sizes of candle jars—both are the same diameter, but one size is slightly taller than the other. They wanted a box that could accommodate either size of candle comfortably.

The client also wanted to move quickly, so the key piece of the overall onboarding puzzle in this case was quickly prototyping the box for their approval. This is not the kind of situation where you could be “off” by even an eighth of an inch. The box needed to fit either size of candle with just enough slack but not too much extra space. Brown & Pratt turned around the perfectly-sized prototype box in just a few days, and the client loved it.

Given how quickly this client is growing and the extent to which their corporate clients who want bespoke candles and packaging will be seeing Brown & Pratt’s handiwork with every order. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind this client will result in new connections along the way.

When a client wants to produce a nice package that requires full-color reproductions of an image or multi-colored designs but only needs a limited run, it makes sense to do smaller jobs like that through digital printing. This carries a higher unit cost but results in the superior print quality they desire. When a client knows they’re going to be doing large runs in the thousands or tens of thousands over time, then you go with traditional printing. That includes the expense of making a cutting die and plates for the printing process because it’s faster and results in lower per-unit costs.

The challenge with this client was initially not knowing what kinds of print runs would be needed. As they talked further about needing the ability to swap in different kinds of box options for bespoke clients who would need different branding, it became apparent they would be better off with the flexibility provided with digital printing in spite of its higher costs. Brown & Pratt can be producing their in-store branded brown boxes, but can just as easily switch to producing white boxes for corporate clients who want to do more with colors, flood coats, special gold print, and so on. The digital printing process gives them the higher degree of flexibility they need to quickly meet the needs of their corporate partners, with custom printed boxes that carry their own desired branding.