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The joy of unboxing: Miriam Brafman of Packlane

For brands in the business of shipping out their products, having a well-designed product is only half the journey. Polished, thoughtful packaging can spark the extra thrill of a connection between a company and their customers. That’s what one-time programmer Miriam Brafman was aiming for when she started Packlane, a startup that lets brands create beautiful boxes in just a few clicks.

The big idea

Brafman grew up in Silicon Valley, where her self-taught web development and design skills eventually led to a full-time job building web interfaces for scientists. “I wasn’t really enjoying the work, and wanted to be doing something a lot more creative,” she says.

That creative something became a business of her own – though she had no idea what the product itself would be. Instead, she was inspired by the possibility of designing the brand around the product, one that would leave a lasting impact.

“I liked the idea of creating a real brand experience.”

So Brafman began researching ways to create real, tactile character for her would-be product — from pretty packaging inserts to the box itself. But alas, online searches for the right proved fruitless. There just didn’t seem to be an easy way to create good-looking, customized packaging. “That’s when it occurred to me that this was a really interesting project in and of itself: finding a way for designers like me to easily create beautiful packaging online,” she says. “There are entire blogs dedicated to packaging design, but no manufacturers were capitalizing on the really beautiful design aspect of packaging.”

Researching the market

From that moment, the journey to create Packlane began. “One of the first things I did was research the market,” Brafman says. “I wanted to see if there were other people that would have the same need, so I started looking at different forums and communities. One of them was a community around subscription boxes, which were kind of up-and-coming at that time.”

In these forums and Facebook groups, Brafman found, one of the topics that kept coming up was the physical boxes themselves — the vessels in which these companies would ship their monthly batches of beauty supplies, healthy snacks, or jewelry. Many of these companies had stunning brand design for their websites or business cards, but they needed a way to deliver that experience all the way to their customers’ doorsteps.

Founder, Packlane

Build and reach

With a clear need in the market and plenty of design inspiration, Brafman got to work building an interactive tool for brands to design their own boxes and packaging. “Since I’m a web developer, I was able to just start building it,” she says. “I didn’t have to hire anyone, and I was able to start executing all aspects of the project.”

To bring the idea to life, Brafman needed visuals for the site, so she rented a photo studio in San Francisco and began capturing images of example packaging. Once she had a tangible product and a functioning site, she began reaching out to vendors and potential customers.

Countdown to launch

Brafman held onto her day job at the lab, but in the months leading up to launch, it became clear she couldn’t do both. “I was really distracted by working on Packlane, so I decided to take the risk, leave the job I was working at, and dedicate myself to working on it full-time,” she says.

So Brafman hit the ‘launch’ button, and orders began to trickle in. “I grew the customer base very slowly at first. It took off after I was in business for a few months and started acquiring customers who were really happy and telling their friends,” she says.

Orders came from all types of businesses: subscription box companies, dental equipment vendors, educational institutions, and more. “A big thing that we’re excited about is expanding the market for packaging,” she says. “There are a lot of new use cases too, like new employee gift boxes — people wouldn’t purchase a branded box for that unless it was really accessible and portable.”

Founder, Packlane

The challenges of success

Brafman’s journey may look smooth, but in reality, the challenges are non-stop. “You have to learn a lot of new things, like customer service and operations,” she says. “You have to keep organized and also move quite fast to build new tools. A lot of decision points are very stressful.” For example, she realized that when creating a custom product, it’s important to set guidelines for how you mediate between customers and vendors, a difficult balancing act for a new company.

“We want to make people better at showcasing who they are.”

Today, the Packlane team has grown to around a dozen employees, but that decision alone was a tough one. “Knowing what to delegate is difficult for me as an entrepreneur,” Brafman says. “Plus, hiring people and making sure you build the right team is always a challenge.”

As Packlane grows, Brafman wants to keep the company true to one of its central values: good design. “We want to make people better at showcasing who they are,” she says. “Design is such a big part of making your brand look professional.”

A word of advice?

While Brafman acknowledges that networking is important, she also admits that it’s just not something she’s all that good at. To get around that curve, she joined a co-working space early on in her startup journey. “WeWork has been great,” she says. “Any kind of community that helps you get in touch with more people who are not only your target customers but also people you could potentially hire is super valuable for an early-stage company.”

Her final piece of advice is a bit, let’s say, outside the box. “There’s a lot of stuff online about ‘the right way’ to do a startup,” she says. “You have to have investment money, raise venture capital, find a co-founder, and join an accelerator. But what I’ve found is you don’t really need to do it the way that a lot of people say you do.” Brafman definitely walks the talk – after starting her entrepreneurial adventure without VC money, a cofounder, or an accelerator membership, she now runs the thriving business she’d always dreamed of.

This autumn, London was gripped by sweet-treat fever as Dominique Ansel, creator of the Cronut®, opened his first bakery this side of the Atlantic. We were delighted to have the opportunity to support his launch with some very British, oh-so-MOO printed Postcards. Just the thing to set off a morning sugar rush. Here’s a peek behind the scenes on launch day (for those who didn’t join the queue).

Dominique Ansel

We created a set of Postcards (including a limited-edition letterpress set) and etiquette cards to mark the launch, featuring some of Dominique’s most queued-for goods. And, of course, we might have tried a few of them ourselves too (never say no to another round of cookie shots).

Dominique Ansel

Do you know how to dress for doughnuts? When it’s tea time, make sure you’re turned out well.

© Sam Mellish

On moving to the UK, Dominique’s encountered the fierce tea debate – when do you add the milk?

© Sam Mellish

Cookie, chocolate and vanilla-infused milk? It’s like all your bottom-of-the-ice-cream-cone dreams came true.

© Sam Mellish

The full set of Postcards: a limited-edition letterpress versions was available to those who were quick off the mark – a reminder of the day that’ll last you longer than that DKA.

When it comes to afternoon tea, we’re here to make sure you’re on top of the etiquette.

© Sam Mellish

Fancy a mini-me? These little crunchy meringues have won over hearts, minds and mouths on two separate continents.

© Sam Mellish

In town? Pop by Elizabeth Street, Belgravia (it’s a short trot from Victoria station) and try Dominique’s creations for yourself – and keep an eye out for our Postcards too.

© Sam Mellish

Make your own personalized Postcards.

Photographs by Sam Mellish.

How can four different brands unite under one umbrella? That’s a good question and one that Fuze thought over tirelessly before undergoing a global rebrand earlier this year. The result is a unique and vibrant rebranding project that utilized color to carve out a place in a saturated market. We spoke with the team behind the rebrand for an in-depth look.

Fuze

The story behind the brand

Of the all the brand refreshes we’ve covered, Fuze has undergone the biggest redesign by far. The company, formerly known as ThinkingPhones, was founded in 2006 as a cloud-based phone system which simplified the cost and complexity of business communications. By November 2015, the company had made several acquisitions and was integrating multiple technologies into a single, far more powerful communications platform encompassing voice, video, messaging, and collaboration technologies in one application.

As a result, the rebranding had the challenge of creating a new global visual system that could unify employees from diverse company cultures. To top it all off, the team in charge of this enormous reboot was small—three people, to be exact.

Why rebrand?

Drew Allison—Fuze’s Worldwide Creative Director—joined ThinkingPhones just as it acquired Fuze, a San Francisco-based video conferencing software. At this point, the brand was expanding in the unified communications category, and the name ThinkingPhones was incredibly limiting.

The goal to fuse together voice, video, messaging, and collaboration into a single app

The company’s vision was to provide a single platform for companies and their employees. The goal was to fuse together voice, video, messaging, and collaboration into a single app, allowing people to connect anywhere–on any device–securely and efficiently.

The company needed a rebrand that expressed these new features—starting with a name change. Rebranding the company as Fuze was the answer.

Recreating the logo

Allison knew that they needed to create a symbol that captured the energy of the new direction while retaining some of the former brand equity. So, he started the design process by thinking about what to leverage from the old logo:

Fuze

The team started with the three ThinkingPhones circles and looked at the competitive space, and analyzed the color set. Several competitors were utilizing blue, some orange, and many with red as their palettes. The team proposed that Fuze could uniquely own purple. It was also the perfect combination of ThinkingPhones blue and the former Fuze red:

Fuze

The team modified the former three circles to distinct and overlapping colored shapes. The resulting symbol expressed the energy, integration and collaboration embodied in the Fuze product.

“We looked at hundreds of logos variations, but this one stood out and inspired everyone that saw the early rounds,” Allison said.

Choosing brand colors and business cards

The new design allowed Fuze to have a liberal color palette. While purple is the dominant color and is mainly how Fuze distinguishes itself across many touch points, a variety of other colors can be utilized to visualize the brand in a bright and lively way.

Fuze uses its new color palette across the brand from trade show booths, in product, and of course, in their MOO Business Cards.

Fuze

“We get compliments on our business cards all the time,” Allison said. “It’s a manifestation of brightness and energy.”

To help Fuze employees understand their company’s new look, Allison created a brand website with their logos and design palette, plus multiple options for business cards. “There are a bunch of variations that people can choose from,” Allison said. “Everyone loves the flexibility.”

Fuze

Onboarding employees with the new brand message

The transition from ThinkingPhones to Fuze wasn’t totally painless. After all, an international rebranding, no matter how well managed, will come with its fair share of challenges. For example, it was difficult to get all of Fuze’s new offices to get accustomed to their brand’s new message. There are hundreds of employees, most of whom were suddenly working for a company with a new name.

“It was also difficult to create a brand that is flexible, represents the fluid nature of our business, and stands the test of time,” Allison said. “We wanted to express the energy of all the companies that came together, and also create something new. Getting everyone to feel like they were well represented was a challenge.”

Fuze

It transpired that the most efficient way to create a unified, consistent global brand was to condense their messages into three words: Simplicity, productivity, and security. The motto is short, but effectively conveys the focus of the rebrand and the value that Fuze can bring.

Fuze

Lessons from a global rebrand

ThinkingPhones made the transition to Fuze extremely quickly. As a result, the creative team was crunched for time. “We were working through the holidays,” Allison said.

Yet the short timeline was a blessing in disguise. It forced the entire team to make quick decisions. “We didn’t belabor the process. I think the fact that we were small and nimble, allowed us to do that,” Allison said. “Our logo just spoke to everyone—I’m not sure if that’s luck or skill or a combination of both.”

In order to keep the decision-making process speedily, Allison recommends keeping major design choices within the executive team.

However, it’s also important to keep employees aware of what’s happening behind closed doors. “We didn’t do everything in a vacuum,” Allison said. “We were exposing our ideas to employees along the way, and people were excited.”

When asked for his last piece of design advice, Allison said this: “Always keep the end user in mind, and show how the product can help people. That’s the most important thing.”

Looking to get your brand looking its best? Start with MOO Business Services.