PROJECT DIARY
COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COMJUNE 2019
DESIGNING AND REFINING
By Sam Pittman
Playing on Petit Pli’s technology, our idea for
the packaging started off as a series of origami
animal masks. They were cute, but we didn’t feel
they were quite on-brand. The rocket or jet pack
concept folded in much more neatly with the
aerospace aspect of the brand, with Petit Pli’s
space-age design.
The development happened in two streams.
First, we worked out a box spec that would
be suitable to hold the product. Second, we
watched hours and hours of origami tutorials
trying to figure out the best folding pattern for
the jet pack.
We started with the more pragmatic issues,
such as shipping, size and the materials used.
The box had to be rigid enough to withstand the
postal service, but also protect the garments
from being squashed in transit or in the stock
room. These factors influenced the introduction
of a cavity to the box, rather than the raised
envelope style we had on the table for a while.
The Petit Pli team’s in-depth knowledge of its
product really helped us identify how we could
manipulate the garments for postage, in turn
affecting the shape and size of the box.
Although in the early stages the focus was on
strength and durability, we were working in the
knowledge that all origami starts with a square,
so this influenced the box net as well.
Then it was a case of combining the box net
with various origami jet pack test patterns.03 The process
involved massive
amounts of
sketching, cutting
out, folding and
prototyping.
04 At first, funny
animal faces were
considered,
however a jet pack
was more
on-brand.
05 The paper
prototype
underwent a lot of
testing sessions.06 NB Studio’s
rocket pack idea
began to unfold,
but the material
specifications
and durability of
the product in
postage had yet
to be considered.Naturally, there were some teething issues
when the two aspects combined, and so a
large amount of time was spent refining the
placement of the folds and where we needed to
add ‘nicks’, which worked to relieve any tension
in the material when folding. This was a greater
challenge than usual because we were working
with 1.5mm e-flute rather than a more standard
packaging board.
The process involved lots of folding, iteration
after iteration, testing with various materials,
then giving folding instructions to people who
had never experienced the project before to see
whether it was simple enough to implement.
There’s no easy way of designing a bespoke03 04“The rocket or
jet pack concept
folded in much
more neatly with
the aerospace
aspect of
the brand”
(^0506)
SAM PITTMAN
Designer, NB Studio
With experience at Ogilvy & Mather and MultiAdaptor,
as well as running his own clothing label, Sam has
been working on a range of projects at NB Studio
since 2015. He joined the studio after graduating in
graphic design from Arts University Bournemouth.