I was watching an episode of Stargate and they had a box of donuts. The box was white though. It looked like the size and shape of the normal pink boxes, but it was white. Other than Krispy Kreme, I’ve actually never seen anyone use anything other than the pink ones. Have I just lived some sheltered life free of non-pink donut boxes? I know it’s filmed in Canada. Is this just some sort of odd Canadian thing? (no offence)
huh?? Are you talking like… gift box type doughnut boxes? The ones with string wrapped around them sort of the size of a shoe box?
Shown here with the open top: http://www.indianacarton.com/Lock_Corner_White.jpg
Usually around here only bakeries use that.
Dunkin Donuts uses the flatter boxes with a 12 donuts aligned flat arrangement.
Same with KK, but they had that first. DD copied (bad move in my opinion) and made the flat box.
Shown here: http://carolinanewswire.com/news/image_upload/krispykreme-box.jpg
DD used to have a box where 12 doughnuts stood up sideways against each other.
Shown here: http://www.pakistangift.com/dunkin.jpg
I liked that box arrangement better, because the new ones leave toppings on the under side of the box, and they are horribly flimsy.
Once you open the box, the broken tape seal compromises the box’s stability, and it’s flimsy.
Anywho… enough of box technology for one day.
Yes, that one, but I’ve only seen pink ones. Although, the local bakeries never tie them with a string. They just put some scotch tape on it. 
Anywho… enough of box technology for one day.
I was looking through my course catalog awhile back and discovered that you can get a BS in Packaging Engineering. Actually, the title officially says “BS - Industrial Systems Engineering, Concentration in Packaging Engineering”. You can also minor in Packaging Engineering, but that’s too many extra units for my tastes.
At the time, I didn’t have much of a respect for the degree. I mean come on…put everything in the box and drop it on the ground. If your stuff breaks, add more bubble wrap and foam peanuts. A few months ago, I had an experience that would change my view of Packaging Engineers forever. I was at Burger King and the drink holder they gave me was this modular box thing. Each unit can hold two cups. You can put two units together and double its capacity. The sides had some interlocking tabs and the two handles sort of complemented each other. I spent about 10 minutes disecting it. Each unit was made from a single sheet of cardboard that was cut, folded, and glued together. I was in total awe of the engineering that went into it. It was incredible, I couldn’t believe it.
I’m no engineer, but I’ve worked in the graphic arts field (do you have any idea how much work goes into designing ONE Barbie accessory package?), and as a packager in a cosmetics factory (put the perfume bottles in the boxes by hand, because the owner is too cheap to buy a machine to do it).
From what I’ve observed of packaging, since almost every product in America has to have its own package, I’m sure that billions of dollars more are spent on package design than on automobile design.
Yet, I think you’d have the same workplace conflict between the artsy people in the marketing department and the engineers: pretty vs. practical. The artsy people think that a rectangular cap with a cuckoo on top would be perfect for their new shampoo bottle. The engineers note that you can’t thread a rectangular cap. Then they make jokes about how many marketers it takes to change a light bulb. 
Back to flat white boxes: have you seen the packaging for the new VEX kits? They look great in the store, and no doubt do a good job of protecting the delicate contents. But unpacking them without dropping the fragile parts everywhere almost requires a college degree. And, once the box is opened, you may need to purchase another type of container if you wish to keep your kit parts organized.
I cant believe how they can pack so little stuff into a styrofoam container and make it so that nothing moves and nothing makes noise.
I was working an A/V installation job at a container maker in Chicago several years ago. My eyes were opened to the science and technology that goes into making simple cardboard boxes. The design lab was bigger than the sales offices. Do you know that the boxes are cut with a drum that has blades sticking out of it in the shape of the box but compensated for the curvature of the drum? Once the material is cut then it goes through another process to “dimple” the cardboard where the folds are. As Karen suggested above, after the marketing people get done, the box still needs to be printed. This can take a number of different methods depending on how nice you want it to look. Can you imagine the cost of just the box those Gateway computers come in?