Packaging Mockup, Packaging Production Color Proofing

Caribou Coffee Brand Innovation and Mockups

Refresh: Behind the Scenes with Cue and

Partners & Hunt

Caribou Coffee has built a reputation for its outdoorsy brand personality and high-quality coffee, but as the company and category evolved, so did the need for a more sophisticated brand expression. To elevate its coffee packaging design and appeal to new audiences, Caribou enlisted branding & design firm Cue, Inc. to create a more modern packaging system for its Signature line of beans.

Cue’s design solution relied heavily on materiality and printing innovation to deliver a differentiating, premium on-shelf presence. Cue called on long-time collaborators, Partners & Hunt, to create packaging prototypes that would help test the design as well as define production specifications and targets.

P&H created a series of full-scale packaging comps that the Caribou team used to assess shopability and presence at retail. Collaborating with Cue and Caribou, we also tested a variety of production methods that simulated commercial printing and provided targets for managing consistency across multiple vendors.

Together, Cue and Partners & Hunt brought a premium expression to life that informed a fresh, exciting new look for the brand. As soon as Caribou’s refreshed packaging hit the shelves, the response from both loyal fans and those new to the brand was overwhelmingly positive. Customers appreciated the more sophisticated look, noting that the packaging felt premium yet still true to Caribou Coffee’s roots.

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About the Authors

Chris Thomas – Project/Production Director – Cue

For 15 + years, Chris has worked at Cue, Inc. creating trust and collaborative partnerships across client, creative and vendor teams. View Chris’s Linkedin PRofile.

Paul Hunt – President – Partners & Hunt Support

For 30+ years Paul has been working in the print production and packaging services business. View Paul’s Linkedin PRofile.

Partners + Hunt Support

Is a packaging support agency that seamlessly fits into your creative or marketing team. View Partners & Hunt’s Linkedin PRofile.

Packaging Mockup, Packaging Production Color Proofing, Presentation Mockups

Rishi Tea – Color Proofing and Why Your Premium Packaging Needs It

At first blush, color proofing sounds easy. Your design company gives you a final design with colors in CMYK format. And you think your next step is to send it over to the printer. Guess again.

Color proofing is the step between design and print-ready-files. With the right color specialists, it should result in the ultimate printing guide ensuring your printer gives you flawless color accuracy every single time.

Rishi Tea’s new packaging designs showcased the same premium, inspirational quality that it brings to its teas. The artistry of its water color design and foil embossing was the ideal pairing to the artistry that it takes to create the perfect tea. Its beautifully diverse color palette was important in not only creating a unique story for each of its teas but also to help its consumer shop the tea section more easily.

With such a unique, premium packaging, Rishi Tea company came to Partners + Hunt for color proofing to ensure that the printer knew how to flawlessly translate the design to the final printed piece. To start, our color experts created physical proofs for each of the client’s SKUs. This type of meticulous process took a special level of artistry with the Rishi Tea packaging. P+H specialists spent hours finding the best color and level of saturation to achieve the desired water color effect for each unique printed packaging as well as to determine the best foil color and material to match the original design.

The result was the ultimate color accuracy guide for the printer and client peace of mind. The passion for color accuracy from the P+H team meant no press room surprises and that its unique packaging would be perfectly replicated every time.