Portfoliobox of the Month: Perch Plans Custom Box Set

Buying a house is stressful. Building one is an even bigger endeavor.

Perch Plans is a division of Tim Brown Architecture established to provide high-end house plans on a budget. With upwards of twelve unique, customizable designs available, Perch Plans bridges the gap between built-to-specifications and always-in-stock.

When building a custom home, there are really two options: either hire an architect to design your dream house and break the bank, or scour the internet for affordable, homogenous stock houseplans and hope one resembles what you’re looking for. Perch Plans offers another way.

Diligently designed, convenient, and affordable, Perch Plans is a class above the average architectural plans available through a cursory Google search.

To ensure the most individualized experience possible, Perch has implemented limited distribution of its plans per zip code. This provides customers with a greater sense of ownership over their particular home and prevents any one area from becoming oversaturated, helping to preserve the individuality of every Perch design and making it feel just a little more customized.

As a purveyor of modern architecture providing online house plans, one might expect Perch Plans to be a completely digital enterprise. But blueprints are meant to be held, explored, and understood in person.

With every purchase, customers are sent a custom box set of physical documents including printed drawings, specs, and energy calculations. We at Portfoliobox made sure that box was as spectacular as the plans it was made to protect.

 

custom box set, perch plans, portfoliobox

An elongated base and lid design maximizes its impact through a combination of luxury packaging materials. Ironclad Eskaboard composes the material structure of the box, ensuring reliable protection for the collateral within. Peerless R70 Royal paper from Ecological Fibers lines the neck tray. And lush bookcloth material Iris from Bamberger wraps the piece in Midnight Blue.

This custom box set design is thoroughly modern, not just in its contents, but in concept.

Particularly indicative of modernity is the exposed neck tray. Bright Royal blue from Ecological Fibers and indigo-tinged Midnight Blue from Bamberger compliment one another exceptionally well. A sense of coolness, calm, and trustworthiness exudes from this intelligent color combination.

custom box set, perch plans, portfoliobox

The extended neck tray is an incredibly popular packaging design element. It’s a visually remarkable touch, especially when decorated in contrast to the outer wrap.

The disruptive band of color between the base and lid works as much aesthetically as it does functionally. The complimentary colors of the wrap material are naturally visually pleasing. Structurally, the extended neck tray also supports a properly aligned and securely sealed closure of the lid.

custom box set, perch plans, portfoliobox

The entire interior of the box is lined with the aforementioned R70 Royal paper, creating a sense of concentricity to the interior. It’s often disregarded in favor of an intricately decorated exterior, but the lining of a box can be even more rewarding than the outside. Take this one, for example.

A vivid, lively liner is an unconventional, but incredibly effective way to make a box feel special. After all, boxes are meant to be opened, and it’s the contents we are interested in. That splash of color, or pattern, makes the reveal more memorable, and encourages recipients to explore the custom box set.

That’s not to say the outside of this box is any less impressive. Custom foil stamping adorns the exterior, the Perch Plans logo shines in resplendent silver against the textured Iris bookcloth.

An unusually elongated design combined with high quality packaging materials makes this project as distinct as the work within. For unconventional projects with a need for bespoke finesse, Portfoliobox has the capabilities.

Looking for a partner for your next packaging project? Get in touch with us today! 

 

Custom Wooden Box for Royal Salute

Royal Salute 21 Year Scotch is a spectacle to behold. A navy blue porcelain bottle adorned with ornate engravings and vibrant gold accents, the shape evokes a vintage majesty- a relic from an era of kings and queens.

Liquor magnate Pernod Ricard was looking to extend that sense of royalty to a broader, more diverse audience. Pernod Ricard brought in Plan C Agency to consult on reaching High Net Worth Individuals in the Asian-American market. As part of a comprehensive branding strategy, Plan C designed a luxury custom wooden box, which would resonate with Pernod Ricard’s target demographic. Plan C found a design-manufacturing partner in Portfoliobox to create this rare packaging experience.

Year of the Box

 

Tray in a Three Panel Style Custom Wooden Box with gold metallic foil stamping.
Tray in a Three Panel Style Custom Wooden Box with gold metallic foil stamping.

Consider your most valuable possessions. Whether collectors’ items or beloved heirlooms, chances are your treasures are secure in their own dedicated container. Royal Salute is no different. While the bottle is gorgeous on its own, this custom wooden box elevates the luxury liquor to a true treasure.

This custom wooden box embodies celebration and occasion. The stylized foil work at the center of the piece commemorates 2017, the year of the rooster. Combined with the calligraphy at the top of the piece, this hand brushed effect is exquisitely rendered in metallic gold foil. The decoration immediately stands out, but the true beauty of this box lies in the construction.

Worth the Weight

 

Tray in a Three Panel Style Custom Wooden Box with Satin wrapped French panel and Satin covered foam insert.
Tray in a Three Panel Style Custom Wooden Box with Satin wrapped French panel and Satin covered foam insert.

At 750ml, the Royal Salute 21 Year is a hefty product. To accommodate such substantial contents, a wooden frame box was the best choice, and necessary. The tray in three panel folder design maximizes protection and allows easy access. Iris book cloth gives texture and provides distinct color. This is a box which can tuck away neatly in a liquor cabinet or display prominently behind a home bar without fear of damage.

The interior of this box further demonstrates the value of the product enclosed. Upon opening, all aspects of the design draw the eye to the product. The purpose of the blue Iris book cloth wrap becomes abundantly clear as the bottle comes into view. The colors play wonderfully together. Bronze satin contrasts with blue as the creases in the lining pull focus to the 21 Year scotch.

A satin wrapped French panel gilds the inside, providing a tight fit when the custom wooden box is closed. A foam insert to hold the bottle is elevated to luxurious extremes with the addition of satin draping over the foam. The insert was crafted to exactly fit the size and shape of the bottle. The result is a cloud-like effect; a lustrous silken pillow cradling a precious treasure.

There are projects which adequately meet their objectives and there are projects which exceed expectation. Plan C Agency wanted to create a one of a kind gift box to connect with high net worth individuals within the Asian American community. The result was an absolutely glorious piece which demonstrates the breadth of the techniques and capabilities that embody Portfoliobox.

 

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The Wellesley (Augmented) Effect: Custom Slipcase Portfoliobox of the Month

The plan for the state of the art center for musical and visual arts was to completely gut the structure, graft on an addition and repurpose the newly renovated space. The Pendleton West building at Wellesley College was full of cramped classrooms and labs, unchanged since its 1934 construction. Wellesley would launch a fundraising campaign to bring the former science building into the 21st Century, decisively and in its entirety.

An endeavor as ambitious as this demanded a presentation beyond the usual Power Point, so the development team at Wellesley turned to the digital magicians at Studio AMD and their three-dimensional imaging app. Studio AMD, in turn, collaborated with Portfoliobox to build the physical launch platform for the project.

The app and the wrap

Custom inner slipcase wrapped in printing with hidden Augmented Reality effect
Custom inner slipcase wrapped in printing with hidden Augmented Reality effect

Portfoliobox, Studio AMD, and digital printer iolabs, had previously collaborated on a similar project for the University of Kentucky. The core of the presentation is an iPad Air loaded with AMD’s Augmented Reality app and a specially printed photographic wrap on the top and sides of the inner slipcase.

When viewed through the iPad, the campus buildings, including the proposed repurposed structure, appear to rise in three dimensions from the platform in a holographic sleight of hand. Proper positioning of the wrap on all surfaces of the slipcase is critical for the app to work properly, and the crafts people at Portfoliobox were up to the precision challenge.

A Custom Slipcase within a Custom Slipcase

Custom inner slipcase wrapped in printing with hidden Augmented Reality effect
Custom inner slipcase wrapped in printing with hidden Augmented Reality effect

The outer box is a slipcase with a 5-Panel wrap-around folder and hidden magnetic closure. The covering material, Iris, is a natural linen-type fabric made in Germany by Bamberger. The logo is hot stamped with a white pigment foil.

When opened, a second slipcase housing the iPad is revealed along with a ribbon pull. This internal case is covered with white Brillianta digitally printed at iolabs on a Roland large format printer using Eco-Solvent inks. This painstaking process of covering the internal case allows the holographic app to work its magic. A wood framed slipcase, with its crisp edges and corners, assures exact placement and guards against image drop off. The interior pads are covered with domestic Arrestox, its smooth surface allowing the iPad to easily slide out.

We’re happy to report that the capital campaign was a success and reconstruction of the building is close to completion. Portfoliobox is proud to have been an instrument in furthering the academic prowess of such a well-respected institution. Through a confluence of tactile and virtual techniques and our collaborative efforts with our partners we were able to create an effective and memorable presentation piece for Wellesley.

Wood framed book cloth wrapped custom slipcase with white foil stamping
Wood framed book cloth wrapped custom slipcase with white foil stamping

Technical Specifications

Product held: iPad

Style: Slipcase with 5 Panel Folder, with additional inner slipcase

Size: 7″ x 11″ x 2″

Base materials: .25″ basswood, .120 Eska board, .5″ Foamex

Cover materials: Iris book cloth,  inkjet printed Brillianta, Arrestox

Decoration: Foil Stamp

Portfoliobox of the Month: Custom Menu Cover for New England Patriots

New England Patriots ownership wanted to take an already luxurious experience and elevate it in celebration of the team’s 50th anniversary.

They turned to Portfoliobox to create this exquisite custom menu cover for luxury suite catering. Glossy pages filled with scrumptious photographs of lobster, sushi and other delights were held in this anniversary keepsake folder.

Patriots Luxury Menu Box

The menu cover was constructed with heavyweight Eska board panels wrapped with Cialux, a silky, linen-like fabric imported from Manifattura del Seveso in Italy. Although there are other, equally elegant European linens they could have chosen, the Cialux color palette offered a blue that most closely matched the Patriot’s logo. Had the Patriots required a different color we would have suggested a different linen for the covering, perhaps from Germany, The Netherlands or Japan.

Foil stamping on a natural finished material can be very challenging, especially when there are large solid areas of color. In order to accomplish this Portfoliobox sourced Naiki foil from Japan, one of the few metallic foils that stamp well on linen. Even running on a 100-ton heated press, we had to apply 3 layers of foil for complete coverage.

When the folder is opened a concealed pocket inside the back cover allows the Wire-O bound menu to slide into place. Had the team decided to change the menu at any time during the season they could have easily done so. A set of simple ribbon ties completed the presentation. The end result was an elegant hard-cover memento of the anniversary season.
new-england-luxury-box-menu-2

Highly popular Wire-O binding uses formed wire that threads through punched holes. This allows books to lay flat when open. Wire loops are available in variety of colors to coordinate with cover color. A durable option for a wide variety of project types but not particularly elegant. Adding a Portfoliobox folder adds style and grace to an otherwise utilitarian design element.

Their 50th season saw the Patriots make it into the playoffs. Whether it’s a menu cover, an architectural presentation or a major financial proposal, let the team here at Portfolio help your team add style and grace so that you make it to the playoffs.

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