Custom matchboxes for restaurants and hotels: a design brief
What to send, what it costs and how to plan the first run and the repeats for a restaurant, hotel or bar.
Decide where the guest meets the box
A matchbox handed over with the bill has a different job from one in a hotel welcome tray or on a private dining table. Decide that moment first. It shapes the wording, the presentation and how many boxes the team will get through.
For a restaurant, the name and a small drawing of the entrance can be enough. A hotel might prefer a motif from its rooms or garden. The most useful brief describes the place in a few concrete references: a photograph of the door, the menu, the colour of the walls.
Fit the identity to a small box
Send the approved logo files, brand colours and any rules on clear space or minimum size. Add a photograph of the menu or other printed pieces if the box should feel part of the same family. Tell us which elements cannot change and where a drawing is welcome.
A detailed crest or a fine wordmark may need a different arrangement on a box of about 55 × 36 mm. Check the smallest lettering on the proof at real size, and if you want a web address, keep it short.
What it costs
If your designer sends a print-ready file, it adds nothing; a file that needs redrawing or tidying is £45 to prepare. A drawing of the premises by the studio is one fee of £100, charged once. With your own artwork, 250 boxes are £455, 500 are £825 and 1,000 are £1,450, with standard delivery included.
Gold or silver foil is £75 set-up and 32p a box for each face. A coloured drawer is £2 a box, or £2.50 in your Pantone colour. Other foils, embossing and coloured match heads are quoted.
Plan the first run and the repeats
Estimate from use: covers over a set period, rooms you will stock, guests at an opening. Keep a one-off event separate from ongoing stock, because it gives a clearer quote than an open request. Online orders go from 25 to 1,000 boxes; 2,500 and 5,000 are quoted by the studio through the hospitality page.
Once the artwork is approved, repeat runs can be printed from the same file. Standard delivery is about three weeks from the order and dates are estimates, so reorder before the last box goes.
Send a brief we can quote
Include the business name, where the boxes will be used, the quantity, your artwork files, the paper and finish you have in mind, a budget range, the delivery address and the date you need them. Name the person who will approve the proof, especially when a designer, a manager and a buying team are all involved.
These are safety matches. Keep stock out of children’s reach, and check your own venue’s rules on candles and open flames before you put them out.
Custom matchboxes, from 25 boxes: see prices and order
Image references
The reference photographs in this note show real weddings, tables and rooms photographed by others. They are not work by The Laldie and are used under the Unsplash Licence.
- A bar by candlelight, where a box on the table is picked up and taken home. Photograph by Yanhao Fang on Unsplash. Image: images.unsplash.com/photo-1781955781178-6ea29c66e860
- A hotel lounge with a fire. Photograph by Andrew Lamb on Unsplash. Image: images.unsplash.com/photo-1774175927603-129481b459c6