OUGD603 - Design Publication - design and development of Impossible Pig poster and book Packaging

I decided a long time ago when I started this project that the large A0 poster and it's accompanying book showing a step by step of how the project was made would be packaged up in a simple, minimalistic box not dissimilar to how a user might unpackage an Apple product: crisp, clean, white and simple.

I decided this because the contemporary style makes the whole piece more 'fashionable' or 'trendy' I suppose, but it also makes the whole thing a little bit weirder, which I love. Being all minimalistic, it would offer no explanation of the contents, just maybe a picture of the pig on the front with my logo on the underside, which to me, adds to the user experience as it's a constant reveal of the unknown, giving the user an excited nervousness, like opening a package on Christmas morning as a child.

Unfortunately, by this stage, time is tight and so I have no time to offer any variations other than a lift-off-lid. Until I saw this GF Smith packaging lying around the studio:

It's still a really simple box, with a lid ... only the lid is attached like a hinge... like a book. I thought that this would be perfect for my poster and packaging.

So I took a good long observation and messed about with the GF Smith box (I didn't damage it, promise) and figured out how it all went together. It was to my knowledge that the box was made of thick card and was wrapped in buckram on the outside. 

I didn't want mine to be buckram because it wasn't the finish I was going for, plus I wanted the pig on the front and had no time to screenprint that!! But, the buckram seemed to be holding the card in place as a box around the corners, as the card was so thick it would be too thick to make tabs for the corners.

So, I decided to make my own outside but instead of buckram I would print it in the digital dungeon along with the A0 poster (print slot tonight, wednesday) with the pig and logo on it.

I drew some sketches:

Then drew it digitally and printed a prototype:

Magically, this is the first time a prototype has gone right the first time in the history of graphic design. The only problem I was having was that the outside was obviously covered in the printed net, which wasn't a good look. So I went downstairs to James in the print room to ask for his advice.

He said I should just put a grey box around the entire white net, so I could see where the edges were when I came to print.

Thing is, I had added a 2 mm gap in between each panel on Adobe Illustrator, to accommodate for the mount board I was going to use for the inside frame, meaning a grey box behind the whole thing would show through the gaps, even worse!

So I drew boxes behind each of the gaps, and put them at 2% grey, barely noticeable but would help me when assembling the packaging - anything to make the process quicker!

and I put a dark box around the whole thing so I could cut out the silhouette easily. 

Before I got it printed, I managed to sneak into the laser cutter and cut out the mount board, meaning that the strips were even and straight. As I said earlier, the mount board is separate shapes, not one net so they can be glued in with 2mm gaps in between, so the packaging can fold properly.

I printed and cut out the net, glued the mountboard to the net, wrapped the net around the mountboard, before cutting out some lining paper in the distinct mustard yellow of the colour scheme (bought in the library) and sticking it to the inside.

I managed to do this and more in just one day!!

**AMENDMENT**

As of this morning (21st may 2015) I have completely finished my packaging, managed to photograph it, and completely prepare it for submission!