Choosing the right project to do for my own assignment was trickier than I thought, so when I was discussing future products for Winter Cabin the idea of cards came up and I thought designing a lovely box for the cards would be perfect!

Inspiration

I keep a lot of refernce material around simply because I like to look at it, so I'm constantly gathering inspirational materials. But I knew I wanted to look at boxes and how the design interacts on all sides of the box or just using labels in a special way. So I was looking at soap packaging, pencil boxes, vintage tins and labels.

You will likely come across alot of inspiration and using all of these pieces for your mood board can be overwhelming. But it's important to focus on why you are drawn to and pick up on the customizations each of piece of your inspiration. When you pick up on these unique qualities, take note in your sketchbook or on a printout of your inspiration. Then you can make decisions about whether these pieces will fit in with your project.

Seasonal Greetings Box - image 1 - student project

Sketch/Doodling and Mood Board

Choose the pieces that work best for your project to put together a mood board.

Seasonal Greetings Box - image 7 - student project

Seasonal Greetings Box - image 8 - student project

Seasonal Greetings Box - image 9 - student project

Brainstorming

I find it helpful to talk through ideas with someone. Since I work with Fred on all our Winter Cabin products we have an onoging meeting of products ideas. Once you have your ideas gathered call up a friend to help smooth out ideas and make something special, this will also help you be clear with your ideas as well. But making a conference call with yourself works equally well so long as you keep your ideas organized.

Seasonal Greetings Box - image 10 - student project

I jotted down all the ideas for the packaging including the copy, the look and feel I want to go for and te specific details like dimensions and how I want the box to work. I went for several labels to go on the box to make it look custom.

Seasonal Greetings Box - image 11 - student project

I narrowed down the copy and worked out the heirarchy.

Sketches

Based on my inspiration and the sketches I did I started working on thumbanils. These can be rough just to get the layout and the gist of the style.

Seasonal Greetings Box - image 12 - student project

Seasonal Greetings Box - image 13 - student project

I picked 3 thumbnails to take to sketches. The more options you play with the better your piece will turn out. I have an ornate option, simple and an option that is somewhere in between.

Seasonal Greetings Box - image 14 - student project

I don't always get the inked drawing right the first time and it takes several passes till it's right. I work in layers and compile everything in Illustrator. Once I have the illustration together I start playing with color.

Seasonal Greetings Box - image 19 - student project

After I settled on a color combination I put together the other labels for print. Seasonal Greetings Box - image 22 - student project

The color looks off in the photo so that still needs to be corrected but I love how it turned out!

I look forward to seeing everyone's projects and progress. I hope to see a lot of exploration and testing out new styles from your inspiration.

Seasonal Greetings Box - image 25 - student project

When you finish your projects you might want to put the work you're proud of on a new site. I created my site using Squarespace, it's super easy to use and has beautiful templates to choose from. Click here to try it out.

Mary Kate McDevitt

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