Package Design on a Dime

Fragrance entrepreneur Carlos Ugalde describes his path to creating memorable packaging while avoiding “start-up syndrome.”

Written by: Carlos Ugalde, founder & CEO of Sasha Varon Luxe Parfums

Author bio: Carlos Ugalde, founder & CEO of Sasha Varon Luxe Parfums, is an award-winning art director who has worked with companies such as Murad, Borba Beauty and Renee Furterer. Ugalde turned his attentions to the fragrance industry with his eye on the bold and unexpected.

We’ve all heard the phrase “If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.” Haven’t we? Well, nonsense, I say. You see, regardless of the endeavor that elicited this response, I’d be willing to bet that most individuals who indulge in this type of rose-colored reminiscing are simply choosing to forget the trials endured to get them to where they presently sit. Well, not me…well, at least not yet.

This holds especially true for new beauty and fragrance companies in creating packaging that holds those key elements we all strive to exemplify— originality, beauty, simplicity and memorability.

While locating the sources for a particular project is surely simple enough in the digital age, due in part to tremendous resources such as Beauty Packaging, prohibitive minimums and rising costs are the bane of start-ups and have made it increasingly ambitious, to say the least, to create great packaging.

Mind you I say ambitious, NOT impossible. Don’t get down in the mouth just yet. This is an article of triumph, of the proverbial David & Goliath in the battle of budget versus stellar packaging. For you see not having a monumental budget can also lead to amazing states of creativity and resourcefulness. Mind-numbing, seemingly endless creativity and resourcefulness…but I digress.

In this case, for Sasha Varon’s debut scent, Soulgasm, finding a simple and classic round bottle complete with antique styled atomizer with no minimums was a godsend after exhaustive searching through a sea of bottle catalogs and sites. This allowed for initial testing and ultimately scalable growth while not being saddled with 10,000 pieces to start...talk about stress relief.

Another unexpectedly wonderful addition to the packaging that was able to be implemented was applying custom printing with the fragrance and brand’s logos via silk screening, a surprisingly affordable process costing as little as a few hundred dollars for up to 3,000 pieces…you couldn’t afford NOT to use this method that would add that splash of sophistication that we wanted to showcase and get across to customers. The people at these facilities were exceedingly friendly and more than willing to help a new company through the learning curve, explaining their process, and making the experience as simple and fun as could be.

Finally, the outer packaging—in this case, the ability to create our own intricate packaging design in-house was such a benefit, rather than having to hire an agency. The cost savings were immeasurable, most certainly. After all, no one knows the feeling and passion behind your product better than you, and if you can make the final translation to the product, all the better!

Letting our fingers do the walking, we found a few excellent printers that worked in fairly low minimums, around 1,200, which worked originally.
However, once the design was modified and updated to be a bit bolder, we decided to search again, and came across a printer with NO MINIMUMS. Now let me say that there are few times in this life when things just happen so perfectly, with such impeccable timing and fluidity that you just have to smile. This, my friends, was one of them. The packaging was amazing and we were able to avoid a big drain on operating capital simply to get a polished product out into the retail space.

There was a funny and most appropriate quote I came across the other day that goes like this: “Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.”

True enough. So if you’re just starting out, simply remember: With a little perseverance, a truckload of sweat, battling with your partners, going bananas daily and generally teetering on the brink, you’ll always be able to overcome the challenges of “start-up on budget syndrome.” It’s easy! Well, sort of.

www.sashavaron.com