By Melissa Donovan
Part 2 of 2
Packaging is king in today’s age of marketing. With so many products available to consumers, how a product is packaged is one of the most defining marketing materials a brand owner has. Achieving a successful design preprint is paramount. Today’s leading software solutions enable back and forth between designers and buyers from remote locations, multiple revisions, and viewing in real time.
Founded in 2015, Arka Packaging of San Francisco, CA, operates and maintains a network of worldwide packaging manufacturers and fulfillment centers, communicating with them on behalf of its customers. Its client base includes direct to consumer companies in addition to ecommerce businesses. Through online tools, Arka strives to offers its customers the ability to personalize packaging, including shipping boxes.
“In today’s competitive retail landscape, the unboxing experience is more important than ever, particularly for the increasing number of online-only companies and subscription box services who don’t have a physical store within which to interact with customers. Whether reinforced with physical in-store presence or not, the moment of unboxing is the culmination of days or even weeks of anticipation on the part of the consumer,” explains Sarah Mooney, CMO, Arka.
Box Editor
One of Arka’s online tools is a three-dimensional (3D) box editor. Application-accessible, it allows users to create customized packaging in minutes, avoiding calls, emails, faxes, and meetings. While the solution is attractive to businesses of all sizes, it’s been especially successful for smaller companies and start ups where time is a premium.
Arka wanted to enhance its 3D box editor, however, ensuring its clients’ requests were fulfilled quickly, accurately, and with structural integrity. It looked to Esko ArtiosCAD to achieve this.
Structural design software for packaging, ArtiosCAD is for packaging professionals handling structural design, product development, virtual prototyping, and manufacturing operations. The software handles all the metrics to create challenging designs. It builds a perfectly fitting package around any imported 3D CAD product model. This frees designers to focus on creativity.
Dante Cho, graphic designer, Arka, says ArtiosCAD helped the company save hours of design work by turning customer designs into resizable templates, which are altered when necessary without having to rebuild from scratch. “Its powerful integrated rebuilt design feature also makes it straightforward to parametrically rebuild designs with new geometric values.”
Other tools in the program that are favored at Arka include the tool alignment and snapping features, which provide graphical feedback. Complete 3D integration allows for quick prototyping of designs and presentations.
Cho points to a specific experience with a customer where the 3D interface came in handy to show how packaging would eventually look in final assembly. “We recently completed a project with one of the world’s leading tech giants to package a retail product in which the design required separate pieces that work together. With ArtiosCAD, we not only described but actually demonstrated how the pieces function seamlessly together. We made quick changes as the project developed without needing to create multiple physical mock ups to show the customer.”
Trusted Partner
Arka is pleased with its decision to integrate Esko ArtiosCAD into its system. Mooney says it is integral in not only streamlining workflow but increasing the team’s operating efficiency. “Our designers are confident they have the right tools at their disposal to deal with any challenge, enabling them to pass this confidence on in their communication with customers and build trust,” she adds.”
By working with automated software packaging design solutions, Arka addresses the important needs of its customers as well as ramping up efficiencies in its own business.
Oct2020, Digital Output
