Boxilocks began where good ideas often do - at the intersection of experience, necessity, and creativity.

 

In 2021, my mom passed away after a brief illness. It was while covid precautions were still very much in play, and my sister and I were trying to plan my mom's celebration of life. My mom had wanted a simple graveside service, at a very small cemetery that couldn't accommodate very many people; certainly not the many, many people who wished to attend.  She had worried about her mostly elderly relatives, traveling hours to come to such a brief service as she desired, and also their potential exposure to covid. 

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I worked as a print consultant at a print and fabrication facility at the time, and one of the things we did was produce marketing boxes for both our clients, and our own self-promotion. I was drawn to these, and soon volunteered to take over the tasks associated with concepting, designing, finding contents, writing copy, and all the logistics associated with organizing and executing our own marketing box campaigns. 

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As my sister and I contemplated what to do to celebrate my mom's life and memory under these conditions, and with people across the country, it struck me that a "marketing box" with a different purpose could be a way to bring people together in remembering my mom, without them being physically present. 

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We crafted her story in this box. It included a card that had her self-authored obituary on one side, and our own reflections about her on the other. My sister is a photographer, so we had wonderful recent pics of her, as well as other snapshots from her life.  We thought about the things she was known for ~ little things, like her penchant for See's candy, and the bigger things, like her famous jalapeno jelly and her vast bandana collection that she pulled from and wore on a daily basis. 

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My workplace was so generous in project-managing, creating print files, and producing the printed materials, and I spent a late evening packing and collating the 55 boxes to go out to family and friends.  Then we sort of braced for impact, as we assumed people might be disappointed that an in-person gathering wasn't happening. 

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A bit surprisingly to us, people loved the boxes, and the experience of discovering their contents. We received notes about where people opened them, and how they subsequently kept them and displayed or added to the contents. People sent us pictures wearing their "Nancy bandanas" and of where they'd hung their "Anytime Ornament," which is what we started to call it, as many people were NOT saving them for their Christmas tree, but hanging them in their homes year 'round.  People mentioned that even though they themselves did not want any kind of funeral or remembrance ceremony, they would love to have a box like this sent out. They found it deeply meaningful.​

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Something everyone said: "We've never seen anything like it!"

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Fast forward to fall of 2023, when I found myself out of work. After months of job searching, I was wondering what the next pivot should be. I thought of my many years of experience in print and fabrication, my love of creating imaginative marketing boxes, how much the recipients of that "mom box" enjoyed receiving them, and how I really truly believe that life and its many opportunities should indeed be celebrated.  

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And the idea of Boxilocks was born.