Damaged work is one of the most frustrating complaints that designers receive from clients. Whether it’s a high-quality poster, a run of art prints or a set of architecture drawings, it can be deeply distressing to have work arrive at a client damaged, creased or even water damaged. And with standard packaging not equipped to handle flat items of paper or print safely, damage during shipping is an inevitability. Yet, with the right design mailing solutions such as poster mailing tubes in place, designers and studios can save their clients from agony and avoid any damage to their hard work and often fragile relationships with their clients.
Why Standard Packaging Fails Creative Work
Despite the best efforts of shipping staff, prints and artwork suffer damage during transit because the packaging used is intrinsically vulnerable to a number of common problems. Whilst some damage occurs because of accidents, most can be put down to the inherent flaws in packaging methods commonly used. Prints rolled in flat envelopes or in blocks wrapped in cardboard boxes are prone to damage from above from other packages whilst they are in transit and stacked by the sorters. Corners of boxes get knocked against conveyor belts and other plant and equipment as the packages are moved by hand. Print packages also soak up moisture through the seams and flap closures allowing ink to seep from the surface of the paper causing permanent damage as the paper distorts and then shrinks.
There’s no small amount of frustration when the elaborate wrapping, over the top use of bubble wrap and packaging stuffs like tissue paper and void fill, are all used in a clumsy attempt to manually shore up reams of rolled or flat printed work that’s been packed into the wrong box in the first place. These overpriced and time consuming packing solutions end up looking careless and looking very ordinary – a strong letdown for anyone creating high-end creative work.
Understanding What Artwork Needs During Transit
Choosing packaging for prints and artwork to send from studio to client requires understanding the unique stresses that the packaging will undergo. Beyond the casual handling by senders and recipients, printed goods are regularly passed between automated sorting machinery, jostled around in a car undergoing a bumpy drive between delivery vans and sat in waiting rooms at sorting offices whilst temperature conditions fluctuate. Ultimately, every item is dropped by the couriers at least once, despite this rarely making for good reading in fragile stickers.
Key protection requirements for artwork and prints:
- Compression resistance: Packages must be able to withstand being stacked by other packages with contents remaining safe
- Corner and edge protection: Print products have the most potential to be damaged at the corners and edges and therefore need extra protection from folding or creasing to ensure that they are not damaged during handling and processing
- Moisture barrier: Paper and ink are hygroscopic and need protection from moisture and humidity for optimal durability and archival quality
- Impact absorption: Drops and bumps during handling must be absorbed by the packaging before they can affect the artwork
- Dimensional stability: Packaging should keep flat and not allow movement of packaging material allowing artwork to not move inside the package
The Case for Cylindrical Tube Packaging
Cylindrical tube packaging addresses the basic packaging needs of printed artwork in a way that no rectangular packaging solution can match. For starters, pressure applied to the outside of the packaging is distributed across the circumference of the package – there is no focal point at corners or flat areas where items inside are likely to be damaged. The compression forces that can flatten rectangular flat boxes and harm their contents are exerted safely around the walls of the cylinder.
In addition to not having corners to crease and damage the artwork, rolling also makes for great artwork proxy for approval, sampling and automation testing prior to production. The artwork is securely wrapped and shipped inside a sturdy cardboard or paper tube with sealed end caps to keep it dry. Unlike flat shipping, there are no vulnerable corners to get caught or bent during automated sorting and handling by postal services and distribution centers.
The tube format enables a thoughtful roll and unroll from the receiver, which provides a better unboxing experience than flat envelopes and communicates a quality piece. Clients can tell the difference between a high-quality tube package and an inexpensive flat envelope, and it impresses upon them that they are receiving work by a talented designer.
Choosing the Right Tube Specifications
Not all mailing tubes are equal. There is a big difference in how your work will be protected depending on the overall tube specifications and the job it is intended for. This is primarily affected by the wall thickness of the mailing tube and the overall value of the protection afforded to the contents. While the least expensive mailing tube may be more cost effective per unit in the short term, the costs of damage claims and replacement can far outweigh the initial savings due to the thin walls. With thicker mailing tubes, you spend more up front per unit, but are unlikely to have any damaged claims.
The ideal tube diameter for printed artwork is crucial for it to be rolled and unrolled successfully without placing excessive pressure on the paper and without being too loosely contained in the tube. A rolled print that is too tight can place excessive stress on the paper, causing creases or even permanent shrinkage in the wrong direction, making it awkward to display flat after unrolling. A print that is rolled too loosely in a very large diameter tube may move around erratically during transit and cause damage to any printed reverse or adjacent surfaces through friction with the inner surface of the tube wall.
We recommend an additional two to four inches added to the length of the job for proper end cap seating. Shipping products in paper tubes is generally ineffective when the tube is too short, allowing the end caps to force itself against the rolled work, causing uneven compression at the edges of the work.
Kraft Tube Packaging and Brand Alignment
The materials you choose for tube packaging of your design work carry as much value and messages about your brand as the design work itself does. For studios and creatives who have positioned themselves around messages of sustainability, handmade craftsmanship and a deeply rooted love for and commitment to authentic creative values, kraft tube packaging options align beautifully with the brand story that is often further communicated through the work they create and their client communications.
The use of natural kraft materials implies an environmentally sustainable approach; yet no separate message is required to promote this aspect. The warm brown colour and fibre texture creates an immediately handcrafted impression that reflects the independent designer or studio’s aesthetic values and transplants these faithfully to the packaging of the final product. The material alignment between packaging and product values is crucial here in ensuring that the overall experience is positive for the client – far better than feeling that you’ve invested in great creative only for it to be let down by boring generic packaging.
Your studio logo, website and simple design element can be printed on kraft tubes to create another meaningful way to communicate your brand to your customers. For example, a tube with the studio’s branding and website printed onto it becomes a highly effective branded delivery piece that is received, viewed and discussed with colleagues and staff in the office where the package is unpacked. The ambient marketing benefit of this type of print is on-going and continues to bring value without any additional cost for further publicity beyond the initial setup cost.
Practical Workflow for Packing Prints Safely
Regardless of the packaging quality of tube holders even dedicated artists can damage their work if they don’t have a methodical way of packing their prints for shipping.
Follow this sequence for every shipment:
- Allow prints to acclimatise at room temperature for at least thirty minutes before rolling if using cold or brittle paper which is prone to cracking
- Always roll in the correct direction to minimise fibre stress, sheets should be rolled in the direction of the paper’s natural grain
- Use acid-free tissue as inner wrapping to prevent contact between the print surface and the inner tube
- Gently roll so the print slides in and out of tube easily but does not move around loosely, ensuring the tube is tightly closed
- Fit cushioning to both ends using bubble wrap and foam plugs before seating end caps
- Ensure end caps are tightly sealed with high quality tape to prevent any movement in transit
- Label correctly and clearly with fragile indicators, and make sure it is properly posted and not held up in a sorting office for an extended period
Communicating Value Through Packaging Presentation
The packaging designers use for shipping out work says a lot about a photographer’s attitude to and reverence for the work they are sending out. The first impression a client gets of a studio isn’t just from seeing the work itself, but from the packaging and the labelling. This can go so far as to influence the way a client perceives a photographer’s work, whether or not he or she decides to return for future commissions, and whether or not that client is willing to pay a higher-than-negotiated fee for said work.
Designers who treat the way their work gets shipped with the same respect for its creation that they have put into its design get to reap more value from their work in terms of their professional reputation than packaging with a generic wrapper gets them. A well packaged tube with appropriate studio branding details lets the client know that the same consideration and care that has been put into the design and production of their work has also been used to pack and prepare it for delivery. This message is worth far more to them than the difference in cost of a few envelopes, boxes and pockets.
