The prompt for this assignment was to create conceptual cream packaging and was meant to be a bit more explorative and metaphorical than normal projects, since it was assigned around Halloween. I created Kintsugi, an emotional scar-healing cream. Kintsugi is the ancient Japanese practice of repairing broken ceramics with gold fill, and I chose to base my packaging on this practice because it displays the beauty in being broken and how healing can result in something better than the original. Kintsugi cream comes in a series of 3 and is meant to be used in succession, the end result being emotional healing.
The first cream is to heal the mind, the second, the heart, and the third, the soul, visualized with icons on each box of a brain, a heart, and a vase (soul). The design itself is based off of the colors and textures of ceramics, with die-cut cracks that reveal gold underneath. The box comes with an information booklet about each phase of the healing process. I created the booklet imagery through Adobe Dimension renders.
I enjoyed exploring Adobe Dimension more through this project trying to come up with how I would achieve the different gold effects and building complex products using basic shapes was like a fun little problem-solving challenge. I created the gold cracks on the tall boxes in Illustrator by image tracing real ceramic cracks then cutting it out of a large colored gradient background that I would use as my decal wrap on the tall boxes. I made the tall boxes out of the gold-brass material and overlaid the crack design so the cutout cracks showed the gold underneath. The large box, tall boxes, and cream tubes were all stock models, and the wells within the box I built using basic matte cubes. I created the informational foldout that accompanies the products by rotating flat planes and using the images as fills. The images on the foldout were also created in Dimension using Match Image.
This was a very long process of many critiques and small changes, that have come a long way since the beginning and I am proud of the end result. It achieves my project goals: a design that is elegant yet visually interesting and unique.
Want to know more about this project or about me?
Send me an email at abby.steinour@gmail.com
