Meet We Are Charette, the Florida-Based Design Studio Who Works to Understand Their Client’s Needs and Goals
At GCB Solutions, we work with brands representing a variety of industries, each with different packaging needs and goals. In order to meet our clients goals, it’s important to have like-minded partners. We have become long-term partners with the design team at We Are Charette to provide custom design solutions for our clients.
Founded in 2009, We Are Charette is a branding, packaging, and web design studio based in St. Augustine, Florida. They aim to create design that not only delivers a message, but also opens a visual and emotional dialog between their clients and their audiences. We Are Charette has proven that investing in design results in increased sales, retained customers, and a cost effective marketing strategy. This week, we sat down with Emily Foster Arias to chat about her experience with GCB Solutions and her knowledge about custom packaging and design solutions.
Hi Emily! Tell us about your background?
I’m the owner of a graphic design studio, We Are Charette. We specialize in branding and
packaging — that’s how I crossed paths with GCB Solutions.
What kind of packaging solutions has GCB worked on with you?
We’ve done many labeling projects together, and several custom pouches. We try to find solutions for our customers that look very custom and having a partner like GCB, with a very broad speciality in packaging, makes it easy to explore lots of diverse options.
How has your experience been working with GCB Solutions?
I love working with George! I find GCB to be responsive, creative problem solvers who put forth the effort to provide great printing and production for my clientele. American production means high quality and fast turnarounds; I can’t speak highly enough of this. Many print brokers will farm work to foreign production resources and the results are disappointing. With GCB, I am very comfortable working with them as my main contact no matter the project, because they have an incredibly broad set of specialities from labels, to bags, boxes, and tins.
What is your advice for packaging design?
Packaging is all about establishing an immediate personality for your product. Your customer is searching the shelves for that personality. It’s going to tell them a lot about what your product will do for them, who it’s for, and how it will make them feel to use your product. That personality will do a lot more than any amount of words that can fit onto your box or label! In short, a picture is worth a thousand words.
In my opinion, less is more. An impactful image is going to get noticed much more than a box heavy with information in small print. However, there is always going to be something that needs to be explained — in those cases, be mindful of the necessary hierarchy of information. Remember that NOT EVERYTHING CAN SHOUT on a package. Some things must be supportive statements in order for the most important information to stand out. When a product is full of wonderful attributes, it can become very tempting to cram them all on the principal display panel — don’t. Instead, work with a packaging designer who can help your package convey those positive traits implicitly, and save some of those claims for the back-of-pack, your POP displays, and online.
Any packaging design trends or advice you would like to share?
The most interesting trends I’ve seen lately have to do with sustainability. Using recyclable materials is the old way of thinking about this — that is the the least you can do! Now, there are many new ways of thinking about conserving the earth’s resources through better packaging practices.
Planning a way to reuse packages for other purposes is one interesting trend (such as a bottle becoming a vase, a box becoming storage). Also the trend of “unpackaging” — that is, using the absolute minimum packaging required, leaving out as much plastic and processing as possible. And of course, a lot of advances have been made in the way of compostable packaging materials and I hope that continues to find its way into mainstream consumer goods.
How can we help your custom packaging needs? Contact us today at (904) 263-2804 or schedule a free consultation to learn more.