Long Tail Mixers – Gift Packaging

Long Tail Mixers are an award winning British brand that focuses on mixers for dark spirits and is the brainchild of two lifelong friends who both share a passion for ‘the darker side of spirits’. Back in August 2020, Alex Jolliet (Co-founder, Long Tail Mixers) got in touch with us (Saxon Packaging) to produce three luxury gift packaging solutions, after being referred to us by our existing clients, El Rayo Tequila.

 

Each gift box needed to house a branded highball glass, as well as two featured 50ml bottles of either Tequila, Rum or Whisky and two (200ml) Long Tail Mixers combinations. Alex also wanted a die-cut relief of the ‘Long Tail Mongoose’ (a staple of their branding), as a window on each of the boxes.

Ai-Lien Lee (Lead Designer – Saxon Packaging), quickly got to work in putting together the designs. The structural packaging designs for the three gift boxes were derived from the same FEFCO 0427 style. These would be coupled later on with differentiating artworks further along the design process.

“Using existing imagery and collateral from Long Tail Mixers branded material; I was able to replicate the silhouette of their Mongoose design onto the cutter-guide for their packaging designs. It was a challenging process but I am very pleased with the end result.” Said Ai-Lien Lee.

 

Alex Jolliet wanted to achieve a most premium and high quality look and feel with his packaging. Therefore, it was decided that these packs were to be printed using the litho printing process.

And by way of keeping the manufacturing process as sustainable as possible, Long Tail Mixers and Saxon Packaging agreed that opting for a three way split print would be the most optimal solution for printing and die-cutting the gift packs.

WHAT IS SPLIT PRINTING?

Split printing is the method of printing multiple artworks using the same individual sheet of corrugated board. Instead of printing to one artwork per sheet, it is possible to print multiple forms/variations of your packaging on the same sheet.

This helps to reduce the amount of raw material that is required for the process of manufacturing packaging. Split printing can also help to minimise the amount of material wastage and can help to reach better sustainability goals.

To give these luxury gift packs the extra touch, each of the packaging solutions were given the luxury embellishment of a gloss finish. The amalgamation of the print processes and the print finished used in the manufacturing process, resulted in a most premium and sophisticated overall look.

With an initial order of 3000 units, we are delighted to hear that the gift packs have been very well received and that they are being enjoyed by Long Tail Mixers customers.