Inside Disruptive Packaging’s Design Team: How Creative Problem-Solving Creates Better Packaging

By Matthew Turley, Head of Global Solutions Design & Development

We don’t start with the box. We start with the problem.

A box is simply the answer to a problem that has not yet been solved. That might sound like a basic distinction, but it is at the heart of how I think about packaging design — and how I try to lead our global design team at Disruptive Packaging.

Good packaging design isn’t about making a carton look different for the sake of it. It is about understanding a problem deeply enough to imagine a solution that may not have existed before, then having the technical knowledge and discipline to turn that idea into something that can actually be manufactured, transported, handled and used.

That is where creativity and engineering meet — and where some of the best packaging solutions are developed.

Creativity as a Problem-Solving Tool

I have always been interested in the relationship between creativity and engineering. Throughout my career, I have learned that they are not separate disciplines. The best solutions often come from bringing them together.

One of the biggest influences on my approach to design was Andrew Prewett, one of my former bosses in the UK. Andrew was trained as a fine artist and had worked on visual imagery for the record labels of several well-known bands before moving into packaging.

He had an exceptionally creative mind, but what made him remarkable was his ability to translate that creativity into the physical world of packaging and manufacturing. He understood that an idea is not finished simply because it looks good. It must work, be manufacturable, be repeatable and survive real-world conditions.

That lesson has stayed with me. Creativity is not simply about producing something unusual. It is the ability to view a problem differently and imagine a solution that others may not have considered. Engineering provides the discipline to make that solution real.

That combination is what I look for in our design team.

 

Confidence Built on Experience

There are many excellent packaging designers around the world. We do not claim to be better than all of them. However, I strongly believe our team can operate at the same level as the best corrugated packaging designers anywhere in the world.

That confidence comes from experience. Our designers understand structure, materials, manufacturing, production constraints, logistics and how packaging behaves once it leaves the drawing board.

Technical knowledge alone, however, does not make a great designer. The real differentiator is how that knowledge is applied.

Can we question a problem that everyone else has accepted as normal? Can we transfer an idea from one industry to another? Can we remove a component rather than redesign it? Can we improve strength without adding material or simplify assembly without adding complexity? Can you view a manufacturing constraint not as a limitation, but as part of the creative challenge?

These are the questions that drive our work.

We Don’t Design from a Catalogue

There is often a temptation in packaging to begin with an existing carton, adjust its dimensions, change a few scores and modify the material. Sometimes that is the right solution. But sometimes the problem requires a completely different approach. That is when our team is at its best.

A customer may come to us because a carton is failing in a particular environment. Another may need to reduce assembly time, eliminate glue, improve pallet utilisation or prevent product movement, leakage or unnecessary material use.

Our first question is not, “What box should we make?” It is, “Why is this happening?”

Once we understand the underlying problem, the design possibilities become much broader.

“Some of our best ideas often come from friction.”

A box that doesn’t stack correctly, a panel that fails under load, a product that moves inside the package or a manufacturing step that seems unnecessary can reveal an opportunity for improvement.

These frustrations are valuable because they give us something specific to solve.

Design is rarely a straight line. A prototype may work in one respect while creating a new problem elsewhere. A small dimensional change can completely alter the behaviour of a structure. A fold angle, slot width, score position, material specification or assembly sequence can be the difference between a clever idea and a successful product.

From Idea to Production

A creative concept is only the beginning. We build prototypes to move ideas from our heads into our hands. We cut, fold, assemble, load, pull apart, drop, stack and modify them. Then we do it again.

The objective isn’t to prove that the first idea was right. It is to discover where it is wrong and improve it.

Eventually, every design must enter a manufacturing environment. At that stage, new questions arise:

• Can it be produced consistently?

• Can it run efficiently?

• Can it be assembled without confusion?

• Will it perform the same way thousands of times?

• Does it work economically at production scale?

  
  

A design that performs beautifully as a prototype but can’t be manufactured efficiently isn’t a successful design. The real test is whether the concept can become a reliable product.

Innovation Doesn’t Always Look Like Innovation

Some of the best packaging inventions are remarkably simple. Once you see them, you may wonder why they were not always designed that way.

Our patent work reflects this approach. It encourages our designers to recognise when they have developed something genuinely different — a new mechanism, structure or method rather than another variation of an existing carton.

However, the patent is not the objective. Solving the problem is the objective. A patent is simply what may result when a solution is sufficiently new and useful to protect.

Our team has developed new locking mechanisms that remove the need for glue, fold patterns that increase strength without adding material, leak-resistant internal gussets that can reduce the need for additional liners, and anti-slip structures that increase friction between the package and the surface beneath it.

Every one of these innovations began with a practical problem.

Ideas Travel

We work across seafood, produce, meat and poultry, pet food, seedlings and other applications. Each sector has different requirements, but the underlying principles of structural design are transferable.

DESIGNED TO FOLD. BUILT TO HOLD.

An idea developed for one application can sometimes solve a completely different problem elsewhere. VERTLOCK is a good example. A locking-handle technique originally developed for a retail home-delivery box was later adapted for a poultry box, where it helped eliminate the need for glue and reduce costs.

This cross-pollination is one of the things I enjoy most about packaging design. A solution developed today can become the answer to a different challenge months or even years later.

What I Ask of Our Design Team

My role isn’t simply to approve finished designs. I want our designers to think, challenge assumptions and understand why something has always been done in a particular way. Then they can decide whether there is a good reason to continue doing it.

I also want them to feel comfortable exploring ideas that initially seem impossible. At the same time, they need enough understanding of manufacturing to recognise whether an idea is genuinely impossible or simply needs more development. That balance is essential.

Creativity without engineering can produce beautiful ideas that never reach production. Engineering without creativity can produce competent versions of things that already exist.

We need both.

The Standard We Set

Great design doesn’t come from believing you already know the answer. It comes from being curious enough to keep looking.

The best designers I have worked with aren’t necessarily those who can draw the cleverest carton. They are the people who can take a difficult problem, understand it from several perspectives, imagine possibilities that are not immediately obvious and work relentlessly to turn the best idea into reality.

That is the standard I expect from our team.

We’re proud of our work and confident in our ability — not because we believe we are better than everyone else, but because we know our work can stand alongside the best in the world.

Ultimately, our customers should not need us to tell them that we are good designers. They should be able to bring us their most difficult packaging problem and see what we do with it.

Give us the problem. We’ll work on the answer.