The After Company provides grievers with something that is thoughtful, memorable and helpful. 

Lisa Patchem, the founder of The After Company, unfortunately suffered the sudden loss of her brother, Daniel, in 2014. 

“I was met by very loud silence and an array of flowers that I only envisioned dying and knew I  wanted to do something bigger. Something that would help people talk AND think about grief” – Lisa Patchem, Founder of The After Company

Lisa knew she needed to create something tailored, meaningful and thoughtful because grief is such a unique experience from person to person. 

With the thought of illuminating the love and light that grief shares, Lisa launched a very unique candle line that provides aromatherapy benefits for those in grief. 

Each candle is tailored to different experiences and makes for a unique and thoughtful sympathy gift. 

With the wonderful mission to offer grievers with a sense of comfort, love and light, Lisa needed packaging that would protect her candles and provide a meaningful gift-like experience. 

The Challenge

Lisa reached out to PakFactory in March 2021 to discuss packaging styles for her unique candles and sympathy boxes. 

Lisa had a good idea of what her gift packaging should look like, and needed some help to bring her vision to life. 

Michelle, a product specialist at PakFactory, worked closely with Lisa to brainstorm styles, specifications and must-haves of her boxes. 

The priority was ensuring her candles were in good hands when being shipped as product integrity is important for delivering gifts to grievers. 

Lisa was also looking to create 3 packaging styles with 9 different artwork design options in order to tailor the unboxing experience to her customer’s experience. 

With these two specifications in mind, Michelle was able to help Lisa find the exact style she was looking for, and her packaging visions started to spring to life.  

The Solution

Michelle and Lisa worked closely together to develop 3 different box styles for her candle line.

“We worked with Lisa to develop the structure she liked, and she liked the Shoulder Neck style, and we had to tweak the box insert a bit so it fit her candle nicely but still presented well.” – Michelle, PakFactory Product Specialist.

The two-piece shoulder neck style boxes were created to individually pack and hold her candles for a small thoughtful gift. 

Michelle and Lisa also developed magnetic rigid boxes and two piece rigid boxes featuring custom sleeves for her sympathy boxes. 

Initially running into minor issues with the size of the custom sleeves, Michelle was able to quickly adjust the sizing to ensure a secure fit. 

The Result

As briefly mentioned, Lisa had 9 versatile artwork designs in place, each providing a meaningful quote to comfort her grieving customers. 

Michelle was able to size all of her artwork designs to fit her custom sleeves, rigid magnetic boxes and shoulder neck boxes perfectly. 

Lisa started out with a few sample orders first to get her business started and gained a ton of recognition for her unique mission and meaningful unboxing experiences.

Since Lisas sample orders performed with so much grace, she has since placed several production orders with PakFactory using different artworks for different kits and has been happy with the consistent results. 

“I get that candles can absolutely irritate you if they are done with less care and consideration. We have sold hundreds of candles and are happy to report zero sensitivities!” – Lisa Patchem, Founder of The After Company

The After Company and PakFactory continue to work together in optimizing, updating and providing consistent results for this range of unique packaging solutions. 

Lisa is consistently expanding her candle line and sympathy boxes to provide meaningful and more tailored experiences to her grieving customers. 

We absolutely love seeing this company grow and shedding light on otherwise isolating experience! 

PakFactory aims to work closely with businesses to bring their goals, missions and visions to life.