Every holiday season, our design firm creates gifts that have a twofold purpose: self-promotion and showcasing a client’s product. These gifts are sent to our VIP clientele — with whom we develop rapport and maintain positive relationships even after completing our work with them. Thoughtfully designed holiday gifts are our way of expressing our gratitude and nurturing those relationships over the years, letting them know that they are appreciated by our design firm.
We are also supportive of our clients beyond their design needs, and we wanted to showcase Choco le‘a’s products in this gift. Therefore, the challenge of this project was to incorporate our image as designers within high-quality packaging of Choco le‘a’s artisan truffles, while connecting with our VIP clients on a special, personal level.
Design Solution: We decided to create personalized truffle gift boxes for every VIP client. We utilized the client’s existing box bases and bands, and designed a custom lid. Our boxes are unique — each truffle box is designed with a vibrant, abstract, and hand-lettered stylized map of Manoa on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. The main street names are kept, including East Manoa Road and Lowery Avenue where the Choco le‘a boutique is located; smaller street names have been replaced with flavors like Lilikoi St. and Mochi Way. The highlight of this design is the top-left corner, where a street is renamed with the recipient name: “(client’s name) Rd.” The inside of the lid is also printed with the special message, “Especially for (client’s name)” and “Designed by Stacey Leong Design.”
Our holiday gift recipients were extremely delighted to see the personalization, some even happier with the packaging than with the truffles within. Many of our clients also snapped photos of their gifts and shared them on social media, expanding our audience reach. As a result, we received many emails from both current and potential clients, and helped to drive customers to Choco le‘a. These holiday gifts proved highly successful with its truffles to enjoy in the moment, and a keepsake by which to remember it.
