miscellaneous parcels

"Surprise bag" inspired birthday presents with personalized items inside

I visited a local craft fair last Sunday, It was fantastic! After taking in all the beautiful and creative things people are making I just realized I have to get into the crafter business! Iv actually been considering creating my own shop for some time now and Iv been playing around with the name "miscellaneous". Kind of to represent the eclectic range of things I like to make and it has a sort of handmade and independent feel. Iv been playing with this idea in my head a while but I didn't really have an good idea for the first product - but today I think I found it.

I often make my friends and family personalized presents for birthdays and holidays and I was thinking how can I replicate that type of gift for retail without losing that uniqueness? Well, I came up with the idea of finding and collecting different odds and ends and matching them with symbolic meanings that the customer can pick and choose from ( bottle cap = remember that time you spilled soda all over your self? ) The customer would choose a few personalized unique items and I would wrap them up in a unique little package ready to go.

I was inspired by those surprise bags you get as kids and I want the product to have the same sort of feel... something about the hidden element give the items more value. I think a huge part of this will be figuring out how and where to find the right items and the packeting which will up perceived value.


My goals are:
Research surprise bags and another similar products or competition
Search and price "cute" and "eclectic" items that can easily translate in a number of ways
Come up with a way to inscribe or give personalized meaning to each of the items
Design cost effective but unique packaging

Dictionary Redesign

Idea: Re-design dictionary.com using elements inspired by the emotional thesaurus

At work we all take turns blogging, when my turn rolls around I usually choose to do something a bit different because writing articles just isn't my strength. This week I decided it would be fun to redesign a popular website like facebook or twitter so I started looking for some sites that could use a little freshening up and I came across dictionary.com.

The site sparked my interest for a three reasons:
One - There current site is pretty busy and over crowded with information making it a great candidate for redesign.

Two - It's a pretty popular site and will be easily recognized if I choose to redesign it.

and Three - I recently came across the emotional thesaurus a really unique dictionary tool that gives you emotional definitions (Which is unfortunately just a prototype at the moment) I really really like this idea and would love to play with this in the design!

So for this week because I'm finishing up the zodiac wheel design over the weekend (Last week was a right off because my laptop battery kicked the bucket) I thought I could kill two birds with one stone and merge this project BB.

Zodiac Wheel

Take one of the pantone inspired Zodiac guide, for next week I want to fix it up a bit (Its a bit rough around the edges right now) and complete the other 11 signs!

Zodiac Wheel

   

Explore: Brainstorm of from my Zodiac Wheel Concept

I found my my biggest challenge with this one was choosing between a guide dedicated to one or all of the zodiac sign, one one hand a single individual guide could be really personalized and interactive but I doubted it could done as a pantone fan as I imagined and on the other the full spectrum of signs would fit into my original idea but again would be less detailed. When I couldn't choose I ended up asking the advice of my sister Irene (Who I owe the whole idea too in the first place for suggesting, "Why don't they have a TV show with zodiac themed characters? Everyone loves zodiac signs!" after discussing about the Sailor Moon series) Which do you like better?

And she liked the multiple zodiac idea.
Done and done.

The finalized idea is a pantone fan inspired guide that features each of the 12 zodiacs signs on individual cards. Each card shows the symbol, planet, element, and compatibility for each sign, the outside of the guide when fanned out in a complete circle create a connecting image of all the constellations.

Goals:
So for Sunday because this is a larger project I hope to have 3 cards finished and to figure out how the product with be printed and assembled. Then I'll have next week to finish and print the final product. Also I would like to come up with a catchier name then "Zodiac Wheel"

New Ideas:
I plotted out some good ideas on the bus and at home this week - came up with a few new thoughts and variations of the concept:

Combined Mac rainbow wheel/pantone wheel

Guide dedicated only to one sign - also to be mainly used to compare and contrast relationships with other signs

Guide that incorporates all the zodiacs: Western Chinese, Greek, and possibility Myers briggs

Clock that along side numbers shows zodiac signs

Zodiac Calender

Tarot Cards in the style of playing cards

Zodiac Wheel - Concept

I love pantone swatch wheely things. (Doesn't everyone?)

The swatches are such a fun and completely unique way to display information, there compact, easy to use and the rainbow shape ties in perfectly with the product. All around awesome design that really gets my brain working in different directions on packaging and creating forms.

So I stumbled across a Pantone wheel image on the interwebs (I think it was this designer icon set on dribble) when when I came up with the idea:

A Zodiac guide using the form of a Pantone wheel

The Pantones got me on the idea of what emotions and personality the colours represent and I immediately made the connection to the zodiac, I also find they have a similar wheel shape already so It will be a fun transition to combine the two.

So for this Thursday I'll have some brainstorming done and a completed concept ready for execution.

When Patterns Attack

Here is the round 2 version of "When patterns attack" my latest t-shirt submission for threadless. I added explosions and more elements from the game as suggested when I had it up for critique. Hopefully I'll win this one!

Vote!

Process:




Inspirations/Resources:

When Patterns Attack

A while ago I submitted (but didn't win) a space invader t-shirt design for the threadless loves geeks design challenge. Although the shirt didn't end up winning I think it has a good shot of getting chosen for print, so recently I put the design up for critique and got some good feedback for round two.

Idea: Complete "When Patterns Attack" threadless t-shirt submission

While unknown by most of the human species, space invaders have secretly disguise themselves as houndstooth patterns and live today silently amongst us. You can find the strange creatures almost everywhere, curled up together on your elderly neighbor's purse or soundlessly sleeping on your brand new v-neck sweater. Although the creatures may seem harmless many researchers now believe that the invaders wait in hibernation for the right moment to strike and attack our kind with a force we have not seen since 1978.