Featured Customer: Creative Playware
Tell us a little about your company:
I am a California-based designer that creates contemporary jewelry and gifts made out of LEGO® elements.
I got the inspiration for my business after my (then) seven-year-old son gave me a creation that he had made out of LEGO® bricks. I strung it on a necklace and wore it that day and I got a lot of compliments. Inspired by the idea, I started experimenting with different shapes and colors. A couple of months later, after MANY prototypes and a few sales, I decided to start my design firm Creative Playware.
I’m inspired by the work of many contemporary artists and architects, especially the ones that were part of the Dutch ‘de Stijl movement’* like Piet Mondrian and Gerrit Rietveld. My work is also influenced by the German design movement Bauhaus**, especially the architecture and furniture with its simplified forms and functionality.
*De Stijl was a Dutch artistic movement founded in Amsterdam in 1917 where the artists simplified visual composition to vertical and horizontal lines, using only black and white, and primary colors. De Stijl is Dutch for “The Style”, also known as neoplasticism.
** Bauhaus (the common term for the Staatliches Bauhaus) was an art and architectural school in Germany that was famous for the idea of creating a school in which all arts, including architecture, be brought together. At that time, the German term ‘Bauhaus’ (Construction house) was understood as meaning “School of Building”. The school operated in Germany from 1919 to 1933 and later in the United States from 1937-1938.
What makes your product unique?
The material and the format is a lot of fun to work with. I grew up playing with LEGO® bricks and I still own every brick I played with as a child. These days LEGO bricks come in many shapes and colors, but I tend to gravitate towards the original block shaped bricks in black and white, and primary colors. There is something alluring in the limitation of the basic square and rectangular shapes, yet endless possibilities of an interlocking block. I think it is an ingenious toy and a beautiful material. It gives my designs an architectural, clean finish. I hope my customers will find my designs a different take on a nostalgic toy.
How do you package your products and what ClearBags™ products do you use?
I packed my designs in Crystal Clear Boxes and Crystal Clear Bags. The Crystal Clear Bags and Boxes make bright colors really pop!
During the assembly and in stock, the jewelry is temporarily stored in ClearBags regular 2 mm zipper bags, later to be transferred to ClearBags Crystal Clear Bags for final delivery to customer.
My desk and wine accessories are packaged in ClearBags Crystal Clear Boxes.
Where do you sell your product?
How long have you been working with ClearBags™ and how does ClearBags™ help you succeed?
I have been with ClearBags for a year. Since my switch from my previous packaging provider, I have seen a 400% increase in the products sold in ClearBags Crystal Clear Boxes.
I came across ClearBags early on in my search for packaging solutions. Back then, I was a little wary of using plastic; about the environmental aspects of using plastic, about the plastic getting scratched easily etc., so I initially passed by ClearBags as a package solution provider and instead looked for a paper/cardboard solution with a an acrylic or cardboard top. What I found was that although the paper bottom sometimes was delivered flat, the tops were always pre-assembled. Because the packaging was comprised of material in two different states of assembly when it was shipped to me, some of the pre-assembled lids would always arrive damaged, and I would have to throw up to 25% away. And I still had to assemble half of the packaging! In short, it led to a lot of waste – in time for quality control and packaging, and waste in money for damaged packaging.
The ClearBags Crystal Clear Boxes I use are delivered flat, in efficiently packaged batches which lead to zero waste in transportation and assembly. The fact that they are delivered flat, makes them easy to store. The plastic is incredibly resistant to scratches. And the bags and boxes are recyclable, a piece of information I always pass on to my customers.
My customers are very pleased and I get lots of compliments of the ‘professional looking packaging’. I have zero waste in assembly. And the best part is the increase in sales on the products packaged in ClearBags Crystal Clear Boxes vs the old cardboard/ preassembled foggy clear lid from a previous vendor.
What one piece of packaging advice would you give to other business owners?
When they start your business, they might still be in the exploring stage on what type of packaging solutions they need. They might not know which of your products will sell the best, and through what venue they will be sold. So they want packaging solutions that are flexible.
I would encourage them to consider a vendor like ClearBags that offer small minimums, as well as discounts on larger volumes. So when they settle on a size and type of packaging solutions and their company grows, they can get good discounts on large volumes.
