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June 12, 2014 8 Comments
For small business owners, one of the hardest things to see is another small business closing it's doors. Rivet & Sway was on the other side of our block and just last week had to, unfortunately, close up shop. They specialized in stylish eye-wear for women and took a unique approach to helping women find the right size and style. Sad to hear they closed their doors, but this was even harder to see in the alley outside the shop today.
Packaging is one of those things that's close to the chest for an owner. So much thought and hard, creative work goes into the creation of the box. Then comes the hard financial investment to place that first order, followed by glee when the anticipated boxes arrive. Suddenly it's real! Everything you sell from that point onward is wrapped up in that hard work. It's a big deal. Rivet & Sway received a lot of compliments on their packaging and for good reason, so seeing that hard work in the alley and knowing how near and dear it must be to them really put a pit the stomach.
Then we saw this on the back of the box:
L-O-V-E... Inspiration struck. We had an idea to reuse these boxes one last time.
For almost 2 years we've stored rolls of old hot cocoa labels, since the rebranding, because we just couldn't bring ourselves to toss them out. We figured an opportunity would come along to "reuse" the label. Finally, this was an opportunity to do so, both for the creative effort ahead and for our own sake to give them a proper goodbye.
If there is one thing old labels are good for it's adhesive. And if there's one thing old boxes are good for it's forming cubes to use as building blocks.
With a little work we were able to get all the boxes into neat formation and attached together in workable form.
And from there, back out to the alley.
Goodbye, Rivet & Sway. Pioneer Square will miss a great neighbor.
June 13, 2014
Karl, you continue to impress me. Glad to be associated with you!
June 13, 2014
This is so awesome! I know your excitement when it comes to box design as having hand assembled a few of your new boxes, I know first hand all the love that goes into the boxes. I cannot bring myself to throwing away your packaging. I keep it at my desk as a piece of origami art.
June 13, 2014
Thanks so much for the note Kathleen! You should be proud, The entire package has a lot of surprise moments of beauty throughout the customer experience, like the water color splash on the inside of the lid when the larger box was opened. Those are the touches that really make a difference.
June 13, 2014
This post brought tears to my eyes. Thank you so much for such a lovely act of kindness. As the designer of this packaging, it was one of the sadest things to know that it would all go to waste. I can honestly say that the Rivet & Sway packaging project was one if the proudest moments of my career so far. I put so much love and thought into the design and to know that it was noticed and appreciated means the world to me. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, what a sweet tribute to the brand we all so lovingly created.
June 13, 2014
Sarah – Thank you for filling in the rest of the story! We guessed at a lot when we saw the boxes in the alleyway, and it pleases me to know our intuition about the situation was correct.
Like Lynn says, we all look forward to more great things from the people on your team. Best.
June 12, 2014
What an amazing act of thoughtfulness and creativity! That says a lot about your company and its values.
Sad to say goodbye to Rivet & Sway and all of their beautiful packing, product and creative marketing. Looking forward, however, to more great things in the future from their dynamic team.
June 12, 2014
WOW, I am stunned. I’m Sarah, and I’m the CEO of Rivet & Sway. What an amazing tribute – thank you so sincerely from everyone on our small team. We poured our heart and soul into everything aspect of the customer experience we created for women. We were especially proud of our packaging. It was honestly heart breaking to put it all into the alley for recycling.
I’m also thankful for your story because you simultaneously solved a mystery. The night before, we had put all those little boxes into bigger boxes so that they would be easy to pick up. But someone during the night had dumped them out, presumably to reuse those larger boxes. When I saw all those beautiful grey and gold sleeves in one giant pile, I was so angry. Who could do such a thing??? But when I went back several hours later to put them in yellow recycle bags, they had disappeared! Now I know why.
Thank you, thank you dear neighbors and friends. You created a perfect closure to the wonderful little company called Rivet & Sway.
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Bob Crimmins
June 27, 2014
Insightful. Thoughtful. Inspiring.
Salute.