Spring 2024
Updated Colors
Overview
The challenge of this project was to design a gable-style box for a sleepwear product. The box could be 1, 2, 3, or 4 spot colors or 4-color process.
Research + Brainstorming
I began with some general research into what kinds of sleepwear products are offered. I found a lot of really beautiful luxury sleepwear sets upwards of $600, some streetwear-inspired and very Millennial/Gen Z-coded loungewear sets, and a lot of adorable kids' pajama sets. I was really curious about adaptive sleepwear, especially for children with special needs, disabilities, and sensory issues, so I did a bit of research into what specific features those types of sleepwear would have. After this, I just did some general research into packaging and art styles. I brainstormed a bunch of different product ideas as well as ideas for a sleepwear product for a young adult, Gen X, or child target audience.
SKetches + doodles
I quickly brainstormed some product names and brand styles/messaging for each of my three audiences. Then, I used a little box sketch to draw out three basic ideas for each audience. I tried not to get too hung up on details and having perfect sketches and instead just focused on getting my main ideas out. During this stage, I also carefully took apart my gable box and measured everything to create my own die.
Thumbnails
While I didn't yet know exactly the copy that I would need for the products (like for the size chart and fabric/washing info), for the intermediates I still sketched some more developed details for every side of the box for each of my three ideas. I really, really loved the idea of creating adaptive sleepwear for kids, but after some extensive research I couldn't find a single public domain image of any accessible pajamas. This wouldn't have necessarily been a problem but for this project, I wanted to push myself to use actual images and not just illustrations. I haven't used real photos in any of my projects, so I wanted to go with an idea that incorporated real photos of real people wearing real pajamas.
Intermediates
As much as I loved Mello, I decided to expand upon my other two ideas as I knew I had better public domain photos to use. I included a lot more copy and tried to nail down the general placement of elements on each panel. As much as I love a good minimal/cyber tech/black-and-white moment, I had so much fun sketching the Take It Easy concept in more detail, so I decided that I would take this idea to the final. Plus, I knew I could have a lot more fun with an expanded color palette. The assembled Take It Easy dummy looked the nicest to me and had the most engaging layout and design out of all the concepts, so I was really excited.
Black + White Computer Progressions
I was really fighting myself to not jump into testing color because I knew this box would end up really bright and playful. I'm glad I took a lot of time playing around the the black values. Initially, I knew something was off with my first output. I had a lot of copy, so I spent a lot of time carefully tweaking placement, size, and sentence length. After my first output, I wasn't sure if I should go with the bento box/grid/Mondrian layout on the front of the box. I couldn't quite format all the copy and images on the front to my liking without it, so I was determined. I remember from my bag critique that If I was to have a Mondrian layout on the back, I should try to incorporate something similar on the front so it looked cohesive. Once I brought some of those boxes to the back of this box, things started looking way better, especially after adjusting the values of the boxes and type.
Black + White Computer Dummy
Everything was going great until now. Before this stage, I was assembling my die as a standalone piece. But for the final assembly, I was planning to just cut the same die into panels and then assemble those panels onto my existing gable box so it would be sturdy. Once I did this, though, I could see how messed up my dieline measurements were in certain spots. Pieces of the gable box were showing through, some of my panels were too short, and my handle measurements were too big. This put a wrench in things and going back to re-measure and remake the die while re-positioning all my artwork into it was super frustrating and time-consuming.
Color Studies + Applications
I knew it was risky to use black as one of my colors, but from the beginning of this project I had envisioned playful and bright colors on top of a black background. I did a ton of color applications testing out different placements of the color blocks, and I tried multiple options that didn't incorporate the black. I already had some color chips printed, but for this project I had pre-made a bunch of color palette folders that correlated to the rows of colored circles I printed so I knew which palette was which. I was so torn over everything by this point. I loved the black, but I loved the neon bright colors on their own. I always end up choosing Halloween-y colors subconsciously (why?!) so although I had some Halloween vibes in my applications, I really tried to pull myself away from that. A lot of the color combinations I loved were leaning a little too feminine or a little too childlike, so It was kind of difficult to nail down a good youthful, playful, and unisex-appealing balance.
Flat Clean Digital
Updated Colors
Final Assembled
I will be taking better photos when it's not 4 am, but I'm grateful that this assembled piece had better measurements than before! Not thrilled about the colors. I think it might be too playful, bright and circus-like, but I do like the four primary colors (orange, blue/periwinkle, teal, purple) together and I think they might be good in another project. The yellow wasn't doing it for me, but it was too late to change anything. I also had spent a long time photoshopping all of the models' pajamas and pillows to match my chosen product color scheme, so I was kind of locked in! Bummed my paper cracked instantly, but I learned a lot of measuring and assembly-related time-saving things to do next time.