A lamp the customer carries out by the handle

The maker sells table lamps of its own design: through its online shop, through interior stores and in its own showroom. The same lamp therefore ships by courier to the end customer, stands on a partner's shelf and leaves the showroom in the buyer's hand.

Until then each of those channels had a different pack: a universal carton with bubble wrap for shipping, and in the showroom a box plus a plastic carrier bag, because the box could not be carried. Three routes, three different faces of the brand, and none of them protected the shade the way it needed.

A lamp is three different sensitivities in one product: a heavy base, a thin arm and a shade in lacquered metal. In a universal carton the base worked like a hammer — with every jolt it struck the arm or the shade, and the lacquer picked up scratches from its own bubble wrap.

A scratch on a shade is not damage a customer keeps quiet about. The lamp is bought as an object to be looked at, so the return comes back with a review — and in the showroom the lack of a handle meant a plastic bag that a brand designing lighting did not want to hand over.

• A heavy base and a light shade in one box with nothing between them — the base destroyed the rest.
• Bubble wrap scratched the lacquered shade instead of protecting it.
• Three sales channels, three different packs and no consistent face of the brand.
• A box without a handle forced a plastic carrier bag in the showroom.

We started with the interior. A board insert splits the box into a cell for the base and a cell for the shade, with the arm lying in a die-cut profile between them — none of the three parts can touch another, so the wrap became unnecessary. The shade only ever touches smooth board.

The box itself is a die-cut construction with a lid and a handle cut from the two lid flaps, which lock together into a single grip when closed. The same box ships by courier, stands on a shelf and leaves the showroom in the customer's hand. Single-colour print on brown kraft board gave the brand its pattern with no varnish and no laminate, so the whole pack goes into paper recycling.

• Dividing insert: separate cells for the base and the shade, the arm in a die-cut profile.
• Handle cut from the lid flaps — the box carries like a bag, with no extra carrier.
• One box for courier shipping, the shelf and the showroom.
• Single-colour print on kraft: the brand's pattern without varnish or laminate, all of it recyclable.