For some brands, the packaging is meant to be quickly discarded (think Christmas morning!) and for others it’s meant to be savored – like a perfectly aged whiskey. For brands in the second camp, your packaging is an integral part of the brand experience. You want it to be so inviting that the person lingers over it and returns to it time and time again.

When every detail matters, the visual and tactile elements turn the packaging into an art form. The biggest challenge here is being able to translate your stunning design files into reality with confidence. So many brands skip over this critical step only to regret it later. When everything is done on screens big and small, it’s easy to forget that resolutions, lighting, and textures (to name a few) can be different in bold, physical reality. Bringing in experts with unrivaled packaging knowledge and craftsmanship like those at Partners & Hunt can help close this gap.

When a record company was looking to create a posthumous album for the artist formerly known as Prince, they asked their design team to work with P+H to create a physical mock up. The album’s cover was designed to be a collector’s item that honored both the musician as a person and the artist’s timeless impact. To team up with P+H was a partnership meant to be.

‘What Prince does for music, P+H does for mock-ups’

Meticulous to our core – we obsessed about the colors, materials and finishes to ensure that what was designed perfectly translated into the album cover mock up. Our experts worked tirelessly to perfect the vintage photographic aesthetic and layer on the foils to the album cover material.

With a perfect, physical mockup in hand, the client gets to see and feel all of their design choices and make any final updates before approving the design. The client can better answer a range of questions like: Is this color giving me enough contrast with the background? How does the logo look as just a varnish on a matte background? If the metallic ink isn’t popping enough, should it be changed to a foil? What are the notes I can send to the printer to ensure they get it right? For packaging that feels like a work of art, it often makes sense to add in this step to the product development process.

With notes taken and made, the album cover would quickly become a ‘must-have’ for collectors. P+H was able to give their client the confidence to move forward and pay homage to one of the most talented artists of our time in the way that they know best: packaging.