Burgopak designs packaging for fintech start up – transforming an envelope into an event

Packaging design company Burgopak has teamed up with Placard, the plastic card manufacturer, to design and create packaging for financial services provider Emerge’s bank card.

The brief for Burgopak’s design team was to create packaging that would make a statement and stand out in the market. This called for a premium, tactile experience that felt like unwrapping a gift.

Sasha Fowler, creative director at Emerge, led the creative direction and concept development behind the pack. Sasha said, ‘From the get go, we wanted the bank card’s packaging to be an extension of Emerge’s brand. The goal was to elevate what is typically a routine experience into something worth remembering, a design that would surprise, delight, and embody the brand’s forward thinking personality.

‘Visually, it needed to communicate innovation – sleek with striking colours accented by holographic foil. The ‘feel’ was equally important – we wanted the pack to be high quality, with a satisfyingly solid way of opening. We design everything, from our app to our physical touchpoints to feel considered, premium, and unmistakably Emerge.

‘We are delighted with the final packaging and are looking forward to the reaction from our customers.’

Tess Barone, general manager sales and marketing at Placard, said: ‘Emerge wanted a pack that not only protected the card during transit, but also converted what would be a mundane experience into something more interesting. The dual slide mechanism makes the reveal interactive and fun.

‘The manufacturing of a pack like this, with a belt driven opening mechanism, requires tolerances of less than half a millimetre to ensure that the opening and closing action is smooth. This is what Burgopak specialises in and why we partner with the company, which precision manufactures its packs so that the opening mechanism works perfectly, every time.’

Trevor Buchanan, co-founder, Burgopak Asia Pacific, added: ‘It is always great to work with a bold, young brand which wants to do things differently. Emerge’s packaging was designed to solve the issue of ‘unboxing apathy’ – traditional credit card mailers can be boring – often a card glued to a Z-folded letter, in a plain envelope. This packaging is the opposite – it helps Emerge make a great impression in that first moment when the customer meets the brand physically.’

The pack is made from 300 g/m2 artboard printed with holographic foil and spot UV.