One Designer, 100+ Viral Boxes – Meet Alex Carter

Introduction

CPP Boxes is the one-stop shop for the provision of highly durable, sustainable, functional, fully customizable, and versatile packaging solutions at wholesale rates. It’s a place where packaging is not just a means to ship, it’s an art, science, and an effective branding tool for almost all types of businesses. Today, we sat down with Alex Carter, the company’s lead packaging designer to explore the creative engine behind the company’s most impressive and impactful custom packaging designs. Let’s find out how the expert designers at CPP Boxes create a bulk of eco-friendly, sturdy, and visually amazing packaging box designs in no time. Let’s discuss with Alex what it means to build a brand identity, one box at a time.

Role & Responsibilities of Alex Carter at CPP Boxes

Interviewer: Alex, welcome! Can you share what your role entails at CPP Boxes?

Alex Carter: Thanks! As Lead Packaging Designer, I guide the full lifecycle of a packaging project from strategy to design execution. I help clients discover what custom packaging is. Through unique, impressive, and professional design, I explain to customers that a product’s bespoke packaging is specifically designed to align with their brand, product, and audience.

My entire work involves structural design ideations, sustainable material selections, and the provision of highly functional and aesthetically amazing packaging solutions. I go above and beyond to provide unique and aesthetically amazing box designs, fully customized as per customers’ needs and demands.

At CPP Boxes, we heavily focus on custom packaging for e-commerce businesses. Here, functionality and user experience go hand-in-hand. Everything is a collective effort between sales, design, and production. Above all, is our client. We go the extra mile to deliver excellent results that not just meet but exceed our customers’ trust.

A Light on the Career Journey of Alex Carter

Interviewer: What led you to CPP Boxes?

Alex Carter: Well, I started my career in industrial designing, the destiny gravitated me toward custom packaging. I like it the most because it’s the physical extension of a brand. It’s one of the few most effective marketing tools that has the potential to attract customers and boost a brand’s sales. Though there are countless packaging companies in the USA, CPP Boxes stood out to me because they weren’t just producing custom boxes. They are assisting brands in their growth. By offering innovative, sustainable, and durable packages, CPP Boxes help businesses scale their sales and revenue shortly and experience great success in competitive industries. I joined CPP Boxes because I saw a bright future in custom printing and packaging. Here’s the future in combining aesthetics with purpose, especially when it comes to the commitment to eco-conscious materials, manufacturing, and production methods.

What Is Custom Packaging? Everything You Need to Know!

Interviewer: Alex many newbies in the packaging and printing industry want to know about custom packaging. What’s it near you?

Alex Carter: To me, custom packaging is a bespoke solution designed uniquely for every brand. Like every human being, each business also has a separate and distinct identity. Product packaging is one of the best ways to showcase that unique brand’s identity and boost a company’s trust among its audience. That’s the point where custom packaging comes into action. It’s the antonym of generic. It’s completely customized in terms of size, style, and type, exactly the way a brand wants. It’s a complete difference between a standard packaging box and one that makes your customers feel like they’re unboxing a high-grade, luxurious gift item.

Custom packaging is a solution designed uniquely for a brand. It’s tailored in terms of size, shape, design, material, messaging, and user experience. It’s the opposite of generic. It’s the difference between a standard box and one that makes your customer feel like they’re unwrapping a gift.

Benefits of Custom Packaging for Businesses. How Bespoke Boxes Can Help Businesses?

Interviewer: What benefits do you think a brand can get by availing well-designed, custom-printed packaging boxes?

Alex Carter: There’s a direct ROI in well-designed packaging. There are many perks that one can get with fully customized packaging solutions. Bespoke box has the potential to:

• Boost a brand’s identity, visibility, and consistency.
• Multiply the customers’ retention ratio.
• Amplify a product’s unboxing experience and make it shareable on different social accounts.
• Protect products and decrease their chances of damage and returns.
• Help brands go green, reduce their carbon footprint, and attract a large population of eco-conscious consumers to stand out and increase sales.
• For startups, it’s one of the latest and most effective marketing tools to help them get a million bucks in no time.
• For retailers, it offers products a consistent shelf appeal, attractive enough to grab customers’ attention from long distances.
• For DTC companies, it’s about escalating the overall unboxing experience.

How to Design Custom Packaging? Expert Insights from Alex Carter

Interviewer: When it comes to creating the high-end custom packaging solution, what’s your approach and what do you believe is the most professional way to get the promising results?

Alex Carter: Great question! It’s the most fun part that I like and enjoy at CPP Boxes. I believe that creativity always begins with understanding and discovery. I always start designing custom boxes by analyzing and understanding a brand’s specific voice, product’s unique characteristics, and user preferences. Once, I am clear about all these aspects, I step ahead and thoroughly consider and check out the following:

• Recyclability and durability of the manufacturing materials.
• Classy and functional results of the latest printing methods, including offset, digital, UV, flexographic, and other methods.
• Box’s flexible structure, easy opening/closing mechanisms, security features, transparency, stackability, and other such features.
• Quality results of premium finishes, such as glossy, matte, soft touch, and many more coatings.
• Once satisfied with all these elements, I started designing the box.
• When the box is ready, I let customers view the 3D digital files with our in-house design software.
• I make all the necessary changes if needed and provide the best-quality box to our valuable customers.

A Look at the Most-Demanded Sustainable Packaging Materials for Custom Boxes

Interviewer: Alex as you know, it’s the era of sustainable product packaging, so what eco-friendly materials do you recommend for brands to cut their carbon footprint and appeal to a large number of eco-conscious consumers?

Alex Carter: No doubt, CPP is highly known for eco-packaging. We have countless sustainable packaging materials to ensure 100% eco-friendly packaging solutions. We mainly work with:

• Fully recyclable and rustic Kraft board.
• High-quality, reusable corrugated shipping board.
• Sustainable mushroom and hemp-based alternatives.
• Soy and water-based printing ink options to add more sustainability to the packaging.

Besides using these sustainable materials, we also educate customers on different eco-friendly packaging practices that perfectly resonate with consumers’ needs. We also imprint custom packages with recyclability packaging symbols and reusability instructions to help customers get the most out of their bespoke packaging solutions.

Custom Packaging Trends in 2025 – Check Out What’s Trending in the Market!

Interviewer: Being a professional packaging designer, you better know how important it is to meet the consumers’ shift. So, when it comes to custom packaging, what do you think is highly trending in the market?

Alex Carter: In 2025, I have seen so many exciting shifts in consumers’ packaging decisions. Well, a few of the big changes are:

• AI-personalized printing (data-driven packaging variations)
• Smart packaging (QR codes, NFC chips with AR content)
• Chaos packaging — intentionally messy or unconventional formats
• Minimalist eco-packaging — less ink, less waste, more story
• Biodegradable luxury packaging for premium brands

They are not just trends; they are exceptional packaging styles. These high-end innovations reflect a customer’s deeper value, including transparency, sustainability, and uniqueness. As you know CPP Boxes focuses on innovation, we highly use the above-discussed innovations in our packaging to make it the star of the show.

How to Choose the Right Custom Packaging Supplier? A Beginner’s Guide

Interviewer: What should a business look for in a packaging partner?

Alex Carter: I think partnering with the right packaging supplier is necessary to get promising results and stand out in the competitive markets. Therefore, businesses should do proper research in this context. They must ask if the supplier understands their brand, offers end-to-end services, provides sustainable options, communicates clearly, and can scale a brand’s growth. Choose the one who always fulfills all these criteria. CPP Boxes wins on all these fronts. Being a strategic partner, we always put our clients ahead and serve them the way they want.

Importance of Packaging in Brand Identity – How Custom Boxes Boost a Brand’s Visibility?

Interviewer: A strong brand identity is crucial to stand out on the store’s shelves and attract customers. How custom packaging can help in this context?

Alex Carter: For sure, a strong brand’s identity and visibility are necessary to stand out and cast a lasting mark on customers. It’s not just an accessory or a product’s packaging tool; it’s a strong and promising marketing tool for many DTC businesses. Featuring unique and effective colors, typographical elements, tone of voice, texture, and structure, this premium bespoke packaging is a sensory extension of your digital presence. These distinct and luxury boxes build consistency and long-lasting brand recognition.

Custom Packaging vs. Standard Packaging: A Comparison

How Custom Packaging Enhances Customer Experience? Why Bespoke Packages are the Go-To Options for Businesses

Interviewer: Boosting customers’ overall shopping and unboxing experience is crucial to increasing your customers’ retention ratio. How custom packaging boxes can help in this context?

Alex Carter: Imagine you order skincare online. One package arrives in a perfectly fit, custom box with a brand message and clean aesthetic. Another comes in a reused Amazon box.

Which one makes you more loyal to the brand? Of course, the perfectly fit custom packaging design! That’s the true power of experience design and custom packaging is the first, tactile impression, used to cast a lasting impact on buyers and convert them into potential customers of a business.

Cost Factors in Custom Packaging Production – What Makes Custom Boxes Costlier?

Interviewer: Now come to the most important point! Let's talk money. What drives costs for custom-printed packaging solutions?

Alex Carter: There are many factors that may lead to the heavier costs of custom boxes. A few are:

• Quantity: Larger orders mean lower cost-per-unit.
• Material Type: Sustainable options can cost slightly more, but may offer tax incentives.
• Print Method: Digital is cheaper for low volume; offset is best for bulk.
• Add-ons: Foiling, embossing, custom inserts.

But we help brands balance aesthetics with budget. Great packaging doesn’t have to break the bank. At CPP Boxes, businesses can get a bulk of all types of custom-printed display boxes at wholesale rates.

Innovations in Custom Packaging Technology – A Glance at the Impressive Custom Box Evolution

Interviewer: Any cool tech you’re excited about?

Alex Carter: There are many advanced technologies that have hooked me a lot. Among limitless options, I’d like to mention:

• Latest 3-D prototyping tools that help customers rotate and inspect custom boxes before their final production.
• Dynamic QR codes linked to the fully personalized boxes make the packaging more functional and engaging.
• Barcode integration to help brands and customers find out the overall pricing details at the moment.
• Interactive & engaging custom notes, collectibles, and other elements.

How to Personalize Packaging for Your Brand

Interviewer: How at CPP Boxes do you make custom packaging truly personal?

Alex Carter: To make bespoke packaging truly personal, I:

• Add first-name personalization
• Include a brand storycard
• Use seasonal or campaign-specific packaging
• Integrate user-generated content (like customer photos)

I believe that custom-printed packaging boosts loyalty and social shares, resulting in an increase in a brand’s sales and overall revenue.

What packaging regulations do you offer for custom boxes?

Alex Carter: At CPP Boxes, we guide businesses on various regulations. The most important ones are:

• FDA requirements (for food/beauty)
• Recyclability labeling
• Country of origin
• Barcode placement
• Tamper-evident rules

The Role of Packaging in Product Protection

Interviewer: At CPP Boxes, you go above and beyond to produce aesthetically amazing custom boxes. How do you ensure they are protective and functional as well?

Alex Carter: We use the best-quality material that has matchless durability, sustainability, and functional characteristics. At CPP Boxes, we begin by considering the material weight, structural design, and most often the custom inserts. We believe that custom packaging should strive for shipping, humidity, stacking, folding, gluing, and other phases. For fragile items, we always go with top-notch corrugated double-wall board. For cosmetics, foam or molded pulp inserts are our go-to choice. This way, we ensure highly protective packaging for your products throughout their display and transit.

Some Promising Custom Packaging Solutions for Startups – Let’s Step Ahead to Success

Interviewer: What advice do you have for startups?

Alex Carter: Start simple. Don’t overcommit to thousands of boxes. Instead, choose one versatile box size, go digital for smaller runs, use kraft with black ink for minimal, affordable class, and prioritize storytelling over extra decoration. At CPP Boxes, we specialize in helping startups scale sustainability with room to grow their packaging as they grow.

Packaging Design Software for Custom Boxes – Embrace Advancements & Get Promising Results

Interviewer: What tools do you use?

Alex Carter:

• ArtiosCAD for structural engineering
• Esko Studio for 3D mockups
• Adobe CC for graphic work
• Our in-house CPP 3D Visualizer for client previews

Clients can explore sidelines, color palettes, and material textures virtually before we go to print. It's a game-changer.

Final Quote from Alex

"In an age of digital everything, packaging is one of the few ways brands can physically connect with people. Make it intentional. Make it unforgettable."

Conclusion – Ending an Amazing & Informative Interview with CPP Boxes’ Lead Packaging Designer

Interviewer: Thanks, Alex, for your precious time. It was a really informative and detailed interview. May you come up with more innovations in the near future. Looking forward to seeing something more amazing from you.

Alex Carter: I am highly pleased to throw light on all the innovations in packaging design that we observe and perform at CPP Boxes. If you need to book wholesale custom boxes or need to explore further details, feel free to contact us at 888-395-0493 or quotes@cppboxes.com.