Packaging prototyping

On a piece with a visible finish, packaging is not an accessory: it is the last operation. A burnished or liquid-painted surface marks with very little, and the damage does not happen in the workshop but in handling, loading and repeated resting. That is why packaging is prototyped: it gets built, loaded, moved, and we look at what actually happens to the piece.

Packaging design starts from the geometry and the fragility of the object. We establish where the piece can be touched and where it cannot, which points carry load, how it is restrained so it cannot move, and which materials can sit against the finished surface without leaving traces. The wrong adhesive film on fresh paint is a classic: it protects for a week and leaves its mark forever.

The second criterion is whoever will open the crate. On site, the person unpacking is often not the person who ordered: the packaging has to make it obvious how the piece comes out without being forced, and how it goes back in if installation slips. Packaging that opens one way, and obviously so, prevents more damage than another layer of padding.

Then there are the transport constraints: pallet dimensions, stackability, weight per package, resistance to humidity for sea freight, any markings the consignee requires. These constraints change the packaging design and sometimes the piece itself, because a demountable component travels better and takes less space.

The packaging prototype is tested fully loaded, not empty, and corrected until the piece comes out of the crate the way it went in. From that point on, packaging enters the cycle with the same instructions as any other operation, and its repeatability counts as much as that of the finish. Whoever packs follows a sheet, not their memory: materials, sequence and restraint points are written down, and changing them requires a new test, not a decision taken on the spot.