“Our price range falls more into the luxury category, so when our customers open a box from us, we want them to have a special and elevated experience that’s consistent with the artisanship of our products,” explains Donna Cooper, fulfillment manager at The Citizenry.

The company initially connected with Impak for assistance in designing a mailer, but as the operation grew, Impak took over the entire packaging line, from 11 different sizes of custom-printed boxes to the embossed thank you notes included with every order.

Alison Anderson, business development manager at Impak, and Brittany Vance, project manager at Impak, worked closely with The Citizenry to make sure the new packaging achieved an elevated feel consistent with its brand while also staying within budget.

Designing new brand boxes from scratch felt like a major challenge in the beginning, Cooper says, but “working with Impak made the process so much easier, from helping us narrow down sizes and type of construction to making sure we got the most bang for our buck. The team guided us toward options that worked within our budget, like using white printing on solid colors instead of the 4-color printing our initial designs had.”

“Everyone we’ve worked with at Impak has been so great,” she continues. “We’re a startup so we’re juggling a lot at once, and Impak has always helped rein us in and keep things on track.”

One part of The Citizenry’s packaging that particularly stands out to Cooper was custom designed with the brand’s popular throw pillows in mind.

“All our throw pillows come in custom dustbags created for us by Impak,” she says. “It’s a special unboxing moment, and then an unveiling moment when customers take the pillow out of the dustbag. They have great texture and beautiful hand-dyed colors, so it’s a very tactile experience.”

Another recent collaboration between Impak and The Citizenry involved new gift card packaging. The brand had historically offered paper gift certificates with hand-written messages, but as the business grew, that process became cumbersome and interrupted efficiency at its store registers.

“We decided to modernize by switching to traditional gift cards, but we still wanted them to feel special,” Cooper says. The end result is custom-printed miniature fold-over envelopes featuring The Citizenry’s brand photography. The gift card slips inside the envelope and it all comes packaged inside a tiny box that matches the brand’s larger gift boxes — same color, same gold foil logo — along with a tiny 5-inch journal that serves as a useful bonus gift.

“It’s functional while also having a really beautiful presentation,” Cooper says. "This was a pre-holiday project and Alison and Brittney were fantastic at keeping us on schedule, providing gentle nudges and keeping us on task to ensure they were rolled out on time.”

The new colors, fabrics and thoughtful details of The Citzenry’s updated packaging enhance the luxurious, hand-made aspect of the brand. They ensure that clients have a consistent experience starting with their initial visit to a store or the brand’s website, right down to unwrapping a box from an online order.

With perfectly on-brand packaging and consistent growth, The Citizenry now directly supports 3,178 artisans working in 22 different countries. The team has no plans to slow down anytime soon and is on a mission to expand its global impact for years to come.

“Our fifteen-year goal is to impact 1 million lives for the better,” Donna says. “Through development grants, sales growth, member growth, and increased order value and frequency, the brand will sustain income for 250,000 artisans and 750,000 dependents by 2033.”