Page 3 - Packaging SAGA & Name Development

Hey and thank you for coming back to hear all about the dreaded packaging saga. 

So obviously when creating any brand you have your vision and moodboard. From the very beginning I had strong visions for how I expected the brand to look, but I just hadn’t really adopted the name as of yet! Whilst designing and creating I kept the development of the name of the brand at the forefront of my mind. 

I was always very certain on the aesthetic for the logo, loving all neutrals and florals, (especially dried florals because you just cannot kill those which Is fabulous for such a terrible gardener like me HA! 🪴 ). So, we created this gorgeously dainty stem with leaves and different cut gemstones as flowers. 

Once the logo was designed we continued to work meticulously on the outer mailing boxes, these are the white boxes that you receive your jewellery in through the post. They had to be luxurious, robust and discrete.  Luckily the manufacturers advised a lot on what materials we should use to meet these measures. We’ve kept the mailer boxes plain white on the exterior for security and discreteness whilst travelling with Royal Mail, but the interior is just all things US! To compliment the ‘boho’ aesthetic and the logo we designed a series of florals and other palms to create an irregular pattern across the whole interior surrounding the clear box area for the logo and name.

By this point in time choosing the name was now priority, we needed the brand name before we could even sample any packaging products. But as we all do when deciding something so major, we all always have an inkling of what we want to go for/ use. So, I went with my instincts and chose the name, I had mixed reviews about the name, but for me I loved it’s calm, neutral and classic personality. 

So excitement is on, the name has been chosen, the branding has been established and the packaging products have been developed. Once they arrived I couldn’t believe my vision was now in my hands, proud as punch moment! 🤜 

I continued to develop the business with all formalities that it needed, one being the trademarking process. I hired a solicitor to help me with the process, and he bought to my attention that unfortunately another business has a very similar name in the same category and the name could be refused. Having just spent thousands £££ on packaging materials using an ‘off limits name’, as you can imagine, I was DISTRAUGHT. Tears after tears after tears, doubting this whole business, I was just so ready to throw in the towel. ‘WHY didn’t I THINK to check this beforehand?!’ is all I kept haunting myself with, but your mind is just such a whirlwind when you’re developing everything from scratch. 

During this period my next batch of samples arrived, and my lord, what a pick me up! The sad tears we’re instantly converted to happy tears and the excitement and butterflies fluttered back into my stomach. I just knew I had to continue, I’d come this far and I just couldn’t flake on my dream now.  ☁️ 

Despite the huge set back, I whacked my brain back into 6th gear and slaved over the rebrand. Having a fresh mind and being governed by what names/ words are available in the category for trademarking helped narrow my mass ideas. A few names circulated my mind and many of them we’re very similar to other businesses, which obviously bought me back to square one. At this point I knew I wanted an unusual, memorable name, words that are common and therefore words that are easy to spell. Being an e-commerce store it can be so easy to be lost in the big wide web so I needed a name that was accessible and memorable to many. I worked with a few words similar to the branding and words that I liked. Initially I wanted ‘PALM’ which was unavailable and also ‘NAKED’ which too was unavailable, well I say ‘unavailable’ but they just had a lower success rate of being approved. But luckily the two combined, NAKED PALM was 'available' and guaranteed a successful trademark. 

With the secured name I just didn’t feel the name and logo complimented each other any longer. The name felt very strong and firm yet the logo represented a very dainty classic feeling. Having fallen in love with the new name, I just didn’t feel the same love any longer for the old logo. I was very certain of what I now wanted/ needed but I just couldn’t picture it immediately. I have a few giant dried palms - you have most likely seen them in our marketing and website images, and they were the true inspiration of my logo. I now knew I needed a relatively solid logo and nothing too dainty, like the old logo,  as I wanted to work with hot gold foiling for printing. The more fragile the design the higher the risk of imperfections with the printing on our jewellery boxes. So, Anna, my absolutely phenomenal graphic designer, managed to mock up a beautiful hot gold foiling proof replica of my physical palm, and ima in love. The size and proportion of the logo just worked so beautifully with our packaging and it was so apt and complimentary of the name. 

As we love our environment and absolutely hate waste, I couldn’t bring myself to dispose of all these beautiful outer mailing boxes and polishing clothes. So I found a very bespoke local company who created and colour matched the most beautiful stickers for us to temporarily use on our packaging to cover the old name and logo. And to beautifully retail as NAKED PALM. The only packaging materials we could not work with were the jewellery pouches and the original ‘thank you and care cards’ as there was just no way we could cover the old brand and logo. 

Nonetheless, what was initially a harrowing and stressful experience, forced a rebrand that I just didn’t know we needed and wanted so bad. I am absolutely besotted by the aesthetic, logo and name of the rebrand and I felt so confident and proud to launch it. 

Creating a true experience when purchasing such sentimental jewellery was at the top of our agenda here at NAKED PALM and with the quality and quantity of packaging materials I really think we hit the nail on the head. 🔨 

When you purchase from NAKED PALM your piece of jewellery will arrive in a white branded jewellery box, nestled amongst recycled shred pack and enclosed in a branded white mailer box. Other contents inside will include your packing slip, returns form, a FREE polishing cloth and a FREE jewellery pouch as well as a very big thank you on a small card with care guides on the reverse.

If you made it this far well done you! HA. I hope you enjoyed the brief of a very long stressful and costly experience when starting up a company. But, an experience I oddly am forever grateful for. 🤍💫

Love, 

Toriee x