The Wide World of Packaging Prototypes

Where to Start

As with the addition of any new product line, one of the challenges with bringing package prototyping into a wide-format operation is locating customers with a need for packaging. However, just because packaging prototypes may be new for a wide-format printing company, it doesn’t necessarily mean the company has to find new customers to serve.

In fact, according to Phil Edwards, the founder and president of PrintSure, an Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based company specializing in digitally-printed packaging prototypes, the best place to seek new prototyping business is often with a company’s existing client base.

“I’ve always felt the easiest way to increase your sales is with your own customers to see what else they need, versus just what you’re doing for them now,” Edwards says.

Additionally, since the economy has rebounded in recent years, Edwards says he’s seen an influx of startup companies, which are a natural fit for prototyping and short run digital packaging.

Another potential avenue for acquiring prototyping business is through partnering with existing packaging manufacturers that may not have prototyping capabilities in-house, as their core business is producing production-length runs of packaging. Just-Us Printers, for example, has been able to utilize its wide-format printing and Colex digital cutting machine to help corrugated manufacturers avoid the expense of steel-rule dies during the prototyping process.

“It really helps because their dies are very expensive and they just want to make sure it goes together and the box is right,” Justus says. “We can print direct to it if we need to or we can just cut it out of corrugate. There have been a lot of new opportunities and it continues to grow.”

While acquiring prototyping business is an obvious starting point, there are also essential packaging skills needed for a company to add prototyping services.

According to Ken Madsen, founder and chief marketing technologist of NYC-based Mad Creative Production Agency, adding packaging prototypes to a company’s repertoire often requires obtaining new skillsets, depending on the level to which a company wants to take its capabilities.