Design service / Packaging & Merchandise

Packaging & Merchandise Design.

Design it. Source it. Ship it. One team.

Most brands hire a studio to design packaging, then chase factories through a broker. Two contracts, two layers of margin.

We do both. Senior creative directors run the design; our China team sources it through audited factories. One sign-off, faster to market.

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Shanghai studio / Design + optional sourcing

Frosted glass serum bottle beside a sand-toned folding carton for the Aurele skincare line. Studio work / Aurele

Why it matters

Why our eCommerce
roots matter.

A shopper swipes an Amazon beauty category at lunch, half a second per product. Packaging carries the whole sale: no salesperson, no second chance.

That's the market our team came up in. For twenty years, through Beyond Border Group, we ran eCommerce storefronts across Amazon, Tmall, JD and Douyin. We design packaging that holds up in a listing, on a shelf, and in an unboxing video.

Clients have included HiSense, Camper and age20.

A shopper at a sunlit cafe table holding a phone showing a single skincare product.
The half-second test

Recent projects lifted creative approval rates from 22% to 78%, cut content costs by 60%, and pushed asset output 7x without adding a single hire.

22% Creative approval rate Up from 22% before
0% Lower content cost On recent projects
0x Asset output Without a single new hire

The work, defined

Two lanes, one brand system.

Frosted serum bottle and folding carton for the Aurele line, an example of packaging design.
Packaging design

Coverage

What we cover on packaging

Primary packaging for beauty, FMCG, beverage, electronics and luxury. Outer cartons that protect the product and the brand. Labels, dielines, print-ready files. Sustainable options with real material variants (not a green color swap). Limited editions, seasonal runs, full regulatory localization for ingredient lists, claims and barcodes by market.

You get concept boards, photoreal mockups, and production files your supplier can run with on the first pass. No back-and-forth on missing bleeds at midnight before a print deadline.

In scope

  • Beauty & FMCG
  • Beverage
  • Electronics
  • Luxury
  • Outer cartons
  • Labels & dielines
  • Print-ready files
  • Sustainable variants
  • Limited editions
  • Regulatory localization
Canvas tote, mug and t-shirt under one wordmark, an example of branded merchandise.
Merchandise design

Coverage

What we cover on merchandise

Branded merch designed to be kept, not tossed.

Apparel, drinkware, accessories, stationery, tech kit, trade show gear. Influencer mailers and PR boxes built for the unboxing moment. Retail displays, in-store activations, loyalty premiums, gift-with-purchase systems.

Every piece is designed against your brand system and shown in context, so your team can approve it before a supplier quotes.

In scope

  • Apparel
  • Drinkware
  • Accessories
  • Stationery
  • Tech kit
  • Trade show gear
  • PR & influencer boxes
  • Retail displays
  • In-store activations
  • Loyalty premiums

Contact sheet

Selected proofs.

Concepts and photoreal mockups, generated and finished in the studio. Every frame is authored work, not a stock pull.

Deep burgundy rigid gift box with a gold-foil Vante wordmark and grosgrain ribbon, on dark stone.
Vante Luxury gift box
Frosted glass serum bottle beside a sand-toned folding carton for the Aurele skincare line.
Aurele Skincare packaging
Canvas tote, stoneware mug and folded t-shirt screen-printed with the Fernwell wordmark.
Fernwell Branded merchandise
Two coral-orange aluminium cans for the Mojo sparkling drink under hard directional light.
Mojo Beverage packaging
Two aluminium tubes and a frosted jar printed with the Kasa wordmark, on pale travertine.
Kasa Cosmetics set
Open kraft PR mailer with a printed belly-band reading Luma, holding three products in tissue.
Luma PR & influencer box
A worker on a packaging production line in a daylit factory, with finished cartons and kraft rolls.
Hands inspecting a finished printed carton against a quality-control sheet.
4–8 wks Approved design to delivered units

Optional capability

Need it produced too?
We can source it.

This part is optional. Most clients come to us for the design. But if you also need someone to handle production, we can pick it up from there.

We're based in Shanghai, which means we can plug straight into China's premium factory network. The suppliers we work with already produce for global brands across textiles, drinkware, accessories, tech and packaging materials. BSCI, SEDEX and SA8000 documentation available by category. NDAs in place before a single factory sees the brief.

  • BSCI
  • SEDEX
  • SA8000
  • NDA in place

MOQs negotiated per project, with small-batch runs available for PR and influencer work. Typical lead time runs 4 to 8 weeks from approved design to delivered units, depending on category and finish.

If you already have your own production partners, no problem. We hand over the files and step back.

Our process

Creative is where
it's won.

Most studios sell process. We sell the creative call. AI made the technical side cheap and fast for everyone. It didn't replace the eye that picks which idea is actually worth scaling.

First two steps are where it's won or lost. The rest is execution.

An Aurele serum bottle and kraft carton on a studio worktable beside tear-sheets, colour chips and brief notes.
Where it is won

Brief and brand immersion.

Visual codes, category context, consumer.

The Aurele serum bottle and carton styled as one art-directed hero shot on a warm plaster ledge.
Where it is won

Creative direction. The step that matters most.

Senior creative directors set the territory and the structural concept. This is where a packaging line becomes ownable, and where merch goes from forgettable to collected.

A grid of the same Aurele bottle and carton explored across many label colours, typefaces and finishes.
The rest is execution

AIGC exploration.

Dozens of directions in parallel, faster than traditional sketching.

The Aurele kraft carton as an unfolded dieline with crop marks, beside the folded carton and the serum bottle.
The rest is execution

Refinement and production.

Dielines, print files, mockups, supplier handover.

A row of Aurele bottles and cartons in several size and market variants on a travertine surface.
The rest is execution

Adaptation at scale.

Market variants, SKU extensions, seasonal updates.

The new math

How AI changes
the math.

A client lands with 60 SKUs for a Q3 launch across four markets. The same brief, run two ways.

The old workflow Twelve weeks
Concepts Six weeks Adaptations Two weeks Production files Two weeks

Old workflow: brief an agency, six weeks for concepts, two more for adaptations, another two for production files. Twelve weeks, three or four design rounds, and one tired team.

Our workflow An afternoon
Concept to mockup One afternoon

Our workflow: dozens of concept directions in an afternoon. Photoreal mockups before a sample is ordered. SKU adaptation across markets without rebuilding every layout. Material and finish simulation (matte foil, embossed kraft, soft-touch) before a plate is cut.

Two to three weeks for design from brief to print-ready files. Faster if it's an SKU extension on an existing system. If you also need production, add 4 to 8 weeks for manufacturing and shipping.

Product information, brand guidelines if you have them, a sense of the market, and any reference work you like or hate. If you don't have brand guidelines, we'll work from what exists and flag the gaps.

Senior creative directors from agency backgrounds lead every project. AIGC specialists handle the production volume. No junior teams running the brief.

Yours. We train our AI setup on your existing brand assets, so the output stays inside your visual system, not ours.

You own the final deliverables. We use commercially safe models and document the workflow. For full detail on the legal side, see our Copyright and AI guide .

Both. Our setup is built for volume. Some clients come for one hero pack, others come with 200 SKUs across four markets. The workflow scales.

Full production files. Dielines, bleeds, color profiles, print specs. Your supplier can run with it on the first pass.

Fine. We deliver print-ready files and step back. Sourcing is optional, not required.

Project-based for one-off work. Monthly retainer for ongoing volume. Quarterly advance billing for retainer clients. We'll quote after the first call.

Yes. Send us one product. Inside two weeks you'll get three packaging directions and a sourcing estimate. No retainer, no commitment, the work is yours either way.

Try us

See it on your
own product.

Send us a product. Inside two weeks, you'll get three packaging directions and a sourcing estimate. No retainer, no commitment. Whatever we produce is yours to keep, even if you walk.

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