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Happier Packaging – Happier Earth – Happier You

Happier Packaging - Happier Earth - Happier Place

We’re so excited about our happier packaging that it deserves its own post! We think of our boxes and envelopes as awesome bonus products you get for free. This is why…

When we decided to launch an e-commerce store, we realized how important packaging would be. To match our overall mission, it needed to fulfill certain requirements. We wanted our boxes and envelopes to be environmentally friendly, as locally made as possible, attractive, recognizable, and happiness-inducing. In other words: it needed to be happier packaging. We think we succeeded.

Make the earth happier: reduce, reuse, recycle. - Happier Packagin
Make the earth happier: reduce, reuse, recycle.

Reduce:

All our packaging is made in the USA. This is not about national pride, but minimizes the environmental footprint by reducing travel distance. By choosing the natural look (Kraft or Grocery Bag, respectively), we’re also cutting down on harsh bleaching or dying chemicals. Last but not least, we are sending smaller items (like stickers and can coolers) in small envelopes, cutting down on packaging and postage.

Reuse: 

We highly recommend that you reuse all of the packaging. We actually paid a little more to give you sturdy, functional and attractive mailers that protect your order and that you would want to use again. If you purchase our stainless steel bottle, it comes in the so-called Indestructo box. Not only is it very strong and holds its shape, it also opens on the long side instead of the short side as most bottle boxes do. Who wouldn’t want to keep using this box for souvenirs from their Happy Places? And the super sturdy large envelopes are great for holding your scrapbook-type items from travel and other fun outings.

Recycle:

All packaging materials, including the tissue paper keeping your bottle cushioned during transport, is made from recycled content. For example, the small envelopes are made from 100%, the large envelopes from 80% recycled content. And of course, all of the materials are recyclable.

Stainless steel bottle happier packaging - Happier Place
Stainless steel bottle in its happier packaging.

Attractive, recognizable, happiness-inducing: 

Okay, so this may be a bit subjective, but we believe our packaging is all that. We are fans of the natural look – as you can tell from the products we offer. We’d like to believe that our icon and text logo attract the eye… followed by happiness. C’mon, who can really resist a smile? We trust that over time, our logo will become recognizable. In the meantime, we’re hoping to inspire postal workers to seek their Happier Places.

Happier Packaging - Happier Place
Happier Packaging

Location, location, location!

We saved the most exciting part for the end. As mentioned above, all the packaging material was made in the USA. The small envelopes were printed by (family-owned) envelopes.com in New York. But… here it comes… our boxes and large envelopes were hand-screen-printed by Wounded Heart Press right here in Fort Collins, Colorado! What? What! That’s right. This is where our local + DIY + punk rock pride comes in…

Wounded Heart Press was started by Chip Guthrie and Chad Price – and grew out of the experience of printing shirts for Chad’s band ALL. Chip worked closely with us on making the design and ink work on our material. Then each envelope and box was manually printed! Actually, the boxes were even printed twice since they required two printing screens. As a result, we have happier packaging – printed beautifully and individually by hand, making each box and large envelope unique. And Chip has happy customers who highly recommend Wounded Heart Press! Thank you so much, Chip!

Screenprinting at Wounded Heart Press - Fort Collins, Colorado - Happier Place
Locals (note the Fort Collins hats): Scott and Chip at Wounded Heart Press in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Happier Place printing screen at Wounded Heart Press in Fort Collins, Colorado - Happier Place
Chip explains the manual screen printing process of our Happier Place boxes at Wounded Heart Press (note the Descendents tattoo).
Wounded Heart Press printing screens
Two screens were needed to print our Happier Place boxes at Wounded Heart Press in Fort Collins.
Wounded Heart Press - Happier packaging
Proud to display the Wounded Heart Press logo on our Happier Place packaging!

4 thoughts on “Happier Packaging – Happier Earth – Happier You

  1. Great article. Thanks for sharing this !!!

    1. Thank you for reading and leaving a comment, Carolyn!
      xx Luci

  2. This was so fun to read – and informative too. The mailers and boxes truly are beautiful.

    1. Thank you for your nice comment and reading the post. I wasn’t sure how interesting it would be to people – but I wanted to make sure I shared how much thought and work went into the packaging and that especially the boxes are really something worth having, in my opinion. Also, I kind of can’t get over the fact that each item was printed by hand. Chip did such a great job!

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