BrownBox Agency allows packaging science students to run their own consulting firm

Start-up companies, local businesses and even major companies are often looking for packaging solutions.

Meanwhile, students in Clemson University’s packaging science program are always looking to gain real-world experience they can take with them after graduation.

Thus, the BrownBox Agency was born. The BrownBox Agency was formed about 18 months ago as a student-run packaging solutions agency. It primarily does paper-based package design and prototyping. The work is done in-house at the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics.

BrownBox Agency began when Andrew Hurley, professor of packaging science, and the South Carolina Department of Commerce collaborated to fund a business idea where students could experience what it was like working as a consulting firm in the packaging industry.

“The hope is that companies can partner with us and give students opportunities to get real-world design experience, project management experience, opportunities to interface with external companies and then create turnkey solutions that fit these company’s needs,” said Haley Appleby, co-director of the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics. “It’s a win-win in that companies get solutions, students get experience and we get to build a unique program.”

Pierce Hall, a packaging science graduate student, oversees the agency, which currently consists of three undergraduate paid interns from Clemson’s University Professional Internship and Co-op Program. The interns each work 160 hours per semester. Most projects are completed within 30-45 days.

Once a client submits a project request, a free 30-minute consultation meeting is held to see if the project is a good fit for the agency. A quote is then sent to the client, and if accepted, a kickoff meeting is held where the group establishes a timeline mapping out the various steps.

A brainstorming session is held where students toss out different ideas before narrowing them down to 5-10 versions to send to the client. Once the client decides on an idea, the students provide three rounds of iterations to move forward with. A final version consisting of a mockup or prototype and all files are then sent to the client.

“Any work BrownBox does for a client is a full intellectual property transfer,” Hall said. “We handoff everything we have that they paid for.”

During the Fall semester, students were involved in a longer-than-usual project for Smurfit Westrock, a global leader in sustainable packaging. The project was to create a corrugated chair design that was fully functional and could be placed in the lobby of one of its facilities. The project took the entire semester.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Brody Robinson, a senior packaging science major from Summerville. “We would send them ideas and they’d send us a scale of what the rankings were of the actual ideas. It was awesome just to think creatively about what we could do and then get their feedback pretty quickly.

“It had its ups and downs. The design we ended up going with was a little complex for the machine, so it took a lot of manpower to get through. But it was a lot of fun at the same time. I have learned to always be ready. It’s helped me with my time management, working with classes and being able to come straight to the lab or working in between classes. And it’s helped with my teamwork. I have some co-workers who are really smart and talented at what they do.”

To establish a pipeline of experienced interns ready to go when others graduate or leave to fulfill their required 6-month co-op, a creative inquiry course was developed for underclassmen to volunteer their help. Currently, there are two sophomore volunteers on the team.

“The idea is that younger students who are interested can get involved in the creative inquiry and start to get some experience and see how it operates,” Appleby said. “They can see if they like it.”

Companies looking to partner with BrownBox Agency should contact Hurley at ruperth@clemson.edu.