Premium Custom Shipping Box Artwork Guidelines
Custom printing for high-volumn shippers. Our premium custom boxes require a little more design work, but we'll be there each step of the way.Here's how to make sure your custom artwork looks its best before you upload it to Brandable Box for printing.
Step 1
Choose your shipping box
Step 2
Upload your artwork
Step 3
Work with our designers to create your custom box
Step 4
Start printing!
Choose your shipping box
Choose from the available sizes, and then select your box color preference — kraft, or white. Our kraft boxes are natural brown and made from 100% recycled materials — perfect for black or dark, saturated designs. Our mottled white boxes are slightly off-white and made from partially recycled materials. White boxes are great for brands that include pastel and bright colors.
Read more about what colors will look best on kraft vs white >
Upload your artwork
Upload your artwork before checkout. Laying your artwork on a template and including it in a zipped file is the best way to help us with creating your box design.
Before you send your artwork to us, feel free to use these resources to guarantee your designs will look the way you want. Dieline documents are available to download for each of our five box sizes and demonstrate the size restraints of each box. These files will help you determine which graphics will work best for your brand’s customer experience and better prepare your artwork for production. Included in these .AI files are both exterior and interior templates.
To download, click on your size below.
- Extra Small 6 x 6 x 6.ai
- Extra Small 8 x 8 x 8.ai
- Small 12 x 10 x 8.ai
- Medium 12 x 12 x 12.ai
- Medium 14 x 10 x 6.ai
- Large 15 x 12 x 6.ai
- Extra Large 18 x 14 x 12.ai
- Extra Small 6 x 6 x 6.pdf
- Extra Small 8 x 8 x 8.pdf
- Small 12 x 10 x 8.pdf
- Medium 12 x 12 x 12.pdf
- Medium 14 x 10 x 6.pdf
- Large 15 x 12 x 6.pdf
- Extra Large 18 x 14 x 12.pdf
All graphics included in your design — logo files, decorative elements, social media icons, QR codes, etc.
Design files, if available
Font files or outline text layers.
Learn more about outlines > Template layout of box design
Learn more about outlines > Template layout of box design
This template above demonstrates both exterior and interior printing graphics for one of our cube box sizes. The exterior layout has the glue tab on the left hand side of the box template.
This box design includes:
Don't like your first proof? No worries! Send us your feedback through a provided link and our designers will work with you to get the most of your graphics and box design. At this time, we are able to support up to two revisions.
- Wrap-around printing
- Exterior and interior flap printing
- Interior graphic
- .AI file including outline text layers
- Interior graphic artwork
- Logo graphics
- Example template above
Create your custom box
Once you've uploaded your artwork and checked out, our designers will be in touch with you to start the proofing process. Please allow our designers 2 business days to submit your initial proof for approval. Orders placed after 4 pm each day will count towards the next business day.
Don't like your first proof? No worries! Send us your feedback through a provided link and our designers will work with you to get the most of your graphics and box design. At this time, we are able to support up to two revisions.
Start printing
Artwork approved? It's time to start printing! Due to current demand, once your artwork has been approved, we have a 10-day lead time for production. Lead time does not include shipping time.
Getting the most out of your box design
Color and Your Box
We recommend working in CMYK color mode while creating assets for printing. We will work with the color profile of the assets included in your uploaded files.
To determine which colors will work best with your brand and shipping box, start with the material of your shipping box (kraft or mottled white). Certain colors look best on kraft, like darker, more saturated colors. Other colors, like pastels or very bright colors, can look muddy when printed on kraft and may print more true to color on white.
Note: We don't recommend flood coating at this time. However, for orders requesting flood coating, the minimum order quantity is 1,000 boxes (40 bundles) and a surcharge will be added. Email hello@brandablebox.io for pricing.
Using Fonts and Type
Choose easy to read font weights within your brand's guidelines. If your brand doesn't yet have a brand guide, choose a typeface that's easy to read when printed at any point size. Fonts like Garamond, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Century work well. We recommend that you use a sans serif font, such as Arial or Helvetica, for captions or small type on your shipping box.
Some tips on making your font easier to read: Use highlighting techniques like italicizing or increasing font size instead of varying font styles or multiple typefaces. This will make the copy on your box easier to read. Use a bigger text size for headlines and calls to action, but be sure to leave plenty of space around words or tag-lines you want to stand out as the first things you want your customer to read.
Choose font sizes that are proportionate to the size of your boxes. If you're purchasing multiple sizes (unless all cubed dimensions), it would be helpful to use templates for every purchased size to ensure your assets are scalable. Pro tip: If using Illustrator, once you have committed your type as an outline, you will be able to freely scale your text up or down.
Example
Use consistent text alignment (flush left, flush right, justified, and centered) for an easier to read, tidy layout on your box. Align design elements like taglines, images or logos properly.
Avoid putting borders around your paragraphs, unless needed. This also goes for stand alone graphics or logos.
Including lots of text? Break long paragraphs into bullet points. Giant blocks of text can discourage people to read the info in anticipation of opening the box. Use bullets to quickly highlight key things you want the customer to read before discarding.
Make spacing consistent throughout your design. Remember to leave some white space on your layout to give your content a balanced look. This helps make your design easier to read from far away and up close.
Text Alignment This box pair demonstrates how left aligning supporting text, the logo and tagline copy organizes the box design to be easy to understand.
Printing on the Inside
Inside printing is a fun way to create an unexpected opportunity to educate or inform your customer about the product, your company or anything else you can think of.
Keep in mind the interior depth of your box, and if it makes sense to place graphics near the bottom of the box interior. It may be difficult to notice some graphics or type if the box isn't particularly shallow. Your customers won't be able to read or see elements at the bottom as easily as they would closer to the top.
Interior flap printing is a high visibility place to print messaging for promotions, social media, your mission, or reordering information for the future — messages that you wouldn't want to be potentially damaged during shipping or delivery.
Note: Our white boxes print with kraft interiors — it is recommended to use black or dark, high saturation colors when printing on kraft.
Get the most out of your box design
We recommend working in CMYK color mode while creating assets for printing. We will work with the color profile of the assets included in your uploaded files.
To determine which colors will work best with your brand and shipping box, start with the material of your shipping box (kraft or mottled white). Certain colors look best on kraft, like darker, more saturated colors. Other colors, like pastels or very bright colors, can look muddy when printed on kraft and may print more true to color on white.
Note: We don't recommend flood coating at this time. However, for orders requesting flood coating, the minimum order quantity is 1,000 boxes (40 bundles) and a surcharge will be added. Email hello@brandablebox.io for pricing.
To determine which colors will work best with your brand and shipping box, start with the material of your shipping box (kraft or mottled white). Certain colors look best on kraft, like darker, more saturated colors. Other colors, like pastels or very bright colors, can look muddy when printed on kraft and may print more true to color on white.
Note: We don't recommend flood coating at this time. However, for orders requesting flood coating, the minimum order quantity is 1,000 boxes (40 bundles) and a surcharge will be added. Email hello@brandablebox.io for pricing.
Choose easy to read font weights within your brand's guidelines. If your brand doesn't yet have a brand guide, choose a typeface that's easy to read when printed at any point size. Fonts like Garamond, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Century work well. We recommend that you use a sans serif font, such as Arial or Helvetica, for captions or small type on your shipping box.
Some tips on making your font easier to read: Use highlighting techniques like italicizing or increasing font size instead of varying font styles or multiple typefaces. This will make the copy on your box easier to read. Use a bigger text size for headlines and calls to action, but be sure to leave plenty of space around words or tag-lines you want to stand out as the first things you want your customer to read.
Choose font sizes that are proportionate to the size of your boxes. If you're purchasing multiple sizes (unless all cubed dimensions), it would be helpful to use templates for every purchased size to ensure your assets are scalable. Pro tip: If using Illustrator, once you have committed your type as an outline, you will be able to freely scale your text up or down.
Example:
Some tips on making your font easier to read: Use highlighting techniques like italicizing or increasing font size instead of varying font styles or multiple typefaces. This will make the copy on your box easier to read. Use a bigger text size for headlines and calls to action, but be sure to leave plenty of space around words or tag-lines you want to stand out as the first things you want your customer to read.
Choose font sizes that are proportionate to the size of your boxes. If you're purchasing multiple sizes (unless all cubed dimensions), it would be helpful to use templates for every purchased size to ensure your assets are scalable. Pro tip: If using Illustrator, once you have committed your type as an outline, you will be able to freely scale your text up or down.
Example:
Inside printing is a fun way to create an unexpected opportunity to educate or inform your customer about the product, your company or anything else you can think of.
Keep in mind the interior depth of your box, and if it makes sense to place graphics near the bottom of the box interior. It may be difficult to notice some graphics or type if the box isn't particularly shallow. Your customers won't be able to read or see elements at the bottom as easily as they would closer to the top.
Interior flap printing is a high visibility place to print messaging for promotions, social media, your mission, or reordering information for the future — messages that you wouldn't want to be potentially damaged during shipping or delivery.
Note: Our white boxes print with kraft interiors — it is recommended to use black or dark, high saturation colors when printing on kraft.
Keep in mind the interior depth of your box, and if it makes sense to place graphics near the bottom of the box interior. It may be difficult to notice some graphics or type if the box isn't particularly shallow. Your customers won't be able to read or see elements at the bottom as easily as they would closer to the top.
Interior flap printing is a high visibility place to print messaging for promotions, social media, your mission, or reordering information for the future — messages that you wouldn't want to be potentially damaged during shipping or delivery.
Note: Our white boxes print with kraft interiors — it is recommended to use black or dark, high saturation colors when printing on kraft.