One of the projects that I took on during my Design Development class was designing a package from scratch. This package will be printed out towards the end of our final semester, and it will be on display for the portfolio show that happens in the spring. Let me tell you about the new box I made!

As always, there was lots of brainstorming at the start. A lot of my classmates made a product to sell, but I wanted to think “out-of-the-box”. (Get it, because I designed a box? Haha!) Anyways, I went for more of a storage container rather than a product to be sold. I turned to my own life to see if I could make a solution to a small problem that I have in my life.

I enjoy doing battles with my roommates using Pokemon card decks that the both of us make. Some companies already do make deck holders, but I wanted to see if I could improve them. I have never been able to find a deck holder that also had space to hold your dice, chips, or other card accessories. I wanted to design my own box that had space for these things, while still being a functional and durable product that would grab people’s attention in stores.

I made out a basic sketch in my sketchbook, as well as a quick mockup in Adobe Illustrator. I had to make sure there was enough room to store a full deck of cards with sleeves on them, make sure there was room for card accessories, and make the box fit comfortably in someone’s hand without it being too awkward to carry. This proved to be a very difficult task which involved lots of measuring, designing, and redesigning. When you design something for someone to use, it is very important you take into consideration the UX of the product you’re making.

UX stands for user experience. You want your consumers to have an enjoyable experience with a product, because that will result in consumers actually buying and using your product. If I were to design a box that was hard to carry with lots of extra unnecessary space, people wouldn’t want to use my box. So, making something that a card player would enjoy was high on my priority list.

Once I figured out the best way to layout my box, it was time to get into the software. I had each dimension measured out, so I needed to plug it into the software now. Each of us had to build a flat print of our box that we would eventually fold up after printing. I started putting together shapes until I had my box all laid out.

The shape on the top is the box itself. The shape on the bottom is a little container that goes inside the main box. It is used to hold things like chips or dice. They fit the dice that I used very well, and should be able to fit regular-sized dice just fine. The small shape gets glued inside the bottom of the big shape after everything is printed and folded. If you are at the portfolio show and see my box, I can explain how it works better!

I might even make a change to this design. The two shapes could easily become one shape with a few modifications. I’ll see if I have enough room to do this on the artboard, but for now it will be the two shapes glued together.

I then applied my design to these shapes. It would be easier to explain everything after you see the final product rather than me showing at the end like I usually do, so you guys are getting lucky!

Here is my final product! Let me explain all the choices I made and things I did to make it look like this.

I first started by establishing a Pokeball theme, which is a common item in the Pokemon series. I wanted my box to open up the same way a Pokeball would open up in the game, so that is why the top half is positioned on the top flap, while the bottom is obviously on the bottom. I needed a background, so I took the Pokeball I created and made it into a random assorted background thanks to the help of Photoshop. I made random layers with some of the mini Pokeballs having drop shadows behind them to make it look like they were in a pile rather than just laying flat.

The circle on the side is the “button” that opens the box. It doesn’t actually open the box when you push it, but it is what goes over the flap and it’s a place where you can grab the flap to open it. It gets cut out and glued on after printing.

There are lots of pink lines, dashes, and dots all over this box layout. These won’t be on the final product, but they are in fact guides to help guide me when assembling my product. The solid pink line represents the bleed of my box, which I created by adding an offset path of 0.125 inches for each shape. The dashed lines represent where each fold needs to be made, and the dotted lines represent where glue needs to be applied. These glue dots are on flaps that get folded, so you don’t really see them on the final product.

I really like how my box turned out! I definitely recommend you come out to the portfolio show to see it. It will be printed out on a thicker material like cardstock rather than just printer paper, and I’ll have a Pokemon card deck in the box with some dice. It will be fully functional! Maybe I’ll even make a few to hand out to people who may want some! Even more reasons to come and view my work.

TC