The Crafter’s Guide to Packaging
Handmade Products:
Tips and creative inspiration for
crafters from crafters
By Viola E. Sutanto
Search Press 2014
Paperback £12.99
ISBN 978 1 78221 013 9
Star rating: ****
I haven’t gotten round to setting up an Etsy shop (lots to
think about!), but when I do, I’ll be grateful for this eco-conscious and
inventive book, chock-full of packaging and presentation advice and suggestions
for production craftsellers. The author,
Viola E. Sutanto, is an award-winning graphic and product designer, so she
knows her beans.
The book is divided into three sections: Materials and How to Use Them, Designing
Your Packaging, and Resources. There
are pep talks about the importance of brand communication – the idea being that
your customers are buying into a lifestyle as much as a particular product. I
really liked the author’s concept of “Storytelling
through packaging”.
Since my blog is The
Papercraft Post, the section on paper packaging was of the greatest
interest (no surprise there). There’s a
section on Paper and Sustainability,
which discusses eco-conscious alternatives such as using recycled paper,
tree-free papers, and soy-based inks (I think that use of latter would have to
be done professionally – but, still, good to know). The section on Uses of Paper is indeed about thinking outside the box – or at list
thinking about unusually-shaped boxes. Lots of nice ideas here – translucent glassine
bags, bags and boxes in imaginative shapes and sizes. And – the use of wraps or tags and/or
labels for minimal packaging.
A delightful feature of the book is that it contains several
tutorials. I found one to be of particular interest: Making your Own Decals. Step-by-steps are given on how to use image
transfer paper – and an inkjet printer - to create D-I-Y decals. The project is a jar lid. Would like
to try!
The book also contains a few designer spotlights. It’s always
nice to read about success stories, especially where design is concerned.
The Resources Section at back of book is small – but it
contains some very handy features, such as a paper weight conversion chart, and
another chart matching products with suitable packaging materials. There’s a
new-style Template section featuring a good variety of box shapes and labels. Rather than providing photocopiable templates,
you are provided with thumbnails of the designs. For the boxes, there are pics
both of the finished box shape and the pattern template. You are then given a
QR code so that you can download the templates, and resize them if necessary. A nice idea, which will put an end to
struggles with fitting a bound book into a scanner.
This isn’t an exhaustive book, but it does provide lots of
food for thought, and ideas aplenty when it comes to packaging your homemade
products.
The book itself is a quality paperback: sturdy cover,
stitched binding. Classy and durable.
Note: I was provided with a review copy of this
title.
hi, thanks for your review! I was wondering if this book is different from this one from the same author... did you have a chance to have a look at it?
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