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Boxzet Design
IGLOO ICE CREAM
For this design challenge, we were told we could decide on making whatever kind of design we wanted, so long as we used the Boxzet template, which included the character, car, and surrounding box. I knew I wanted the set to have a target audience in the range of children to young adults. When it came to coming up with the theme, I figured it would be a strong angle to treat the box set like it was a line of merchandise distributed by another company. From there, my Igloo Ice Cream toy set was born...Born out of a love for ice cream and polar bears.
When we began the project, I texted my friend and told him I couldn’t think of anything at the time, and I jokingly added “I could turn in a blank template and call it “SNOW.” He then pointed out I could make an igloo. I realized that idea wasn’t half bad, especially since the box's plastic (acetate) windows could also suggest an ice cube. But I knew I didn’t want to just make an igloo and call it a day. I wanted to add something to it, like a brand identity. So from there I came up with “Igloo Ice Cream.”
I started with the logo, by finding a cool sort of snow/eskimo font. I wanted it to stand out so I contrasted the white with a dark blue outline and repeated that dark blue outline slightly askew beneath it to give the logo some dimension. The hearts didn’t come until later, though.
I then turned my attention to the igloo, messing around with the gradient tool until I was satisfied that these rounded rectangles looked like ice blocks. I made the side panels of the
box a solid color, rather than repeating the ice block pattern all the way around, because I wanted contrast and for the content on those side panels to not be upstaged by the background in any way.
For the side panels, I added some nutrition facts on one side, and some faux company information on the other, making sure to include store hours to suggest that the company had their own Arctic location and imported their own natural ingredients for this renowned ice cream. On both side panels I added an ice cream cone border at the base. The various graphic variations of different kinds of ice cream seen throughout the design were fun to make, too. I wanted the ensure the variety in each image of ice cream so the look didn’t get boring.
Moving to the character, I considered making a penguin, but feared it may look stupid given the standard cube shape of the character's head in the template. So I decided to make the main character a polar bear, and to include penguins by having them in the interior of the box and having one peek out of the igloo (visible from the interior and on the back panel). I named the polar bear character Iggy, and I had him holding his very own ice cream. I designed Iggy’s face to have cute googly eyes and a big, heart-shaped black nose. I liked that heart shape so much that I brought that heart shape and repeated it into the logo, in a complementary pink color. The hearts functioned, too, as a framing element and further helped the logo stand out as a distinct mark.
The ice cream truck was fun to design, too. I took a simplified form of the logo without the hearts (so as not to let the hearts becoming too overbearing) and made a single heart into a sort of popsicle for the truck. It was at this time while designing the truck that I came up with the idea to make these ice cream drips. Otherwise, the truck looked to simple and not bold/fun enough. I made this dripping ice cream motif and incorporated it into the overall design, in my color palette of bright blues and pinks.
The final thing I designed was the interior of the box. I knew I wanted to keep it on the lighter side in terms of color palette because the interior of the box was dark as it is. So I created these penguin characters with one whose attention is diverted “outside” to greet viewers looking at the back of the box, and the other penguin facing the front, just barely visible behind Iggy the Polar Bear. I wrote “OOOOOO” in big letters in the eskimo logo font on the base beside a pile of melted ice cream, because I designed the penguin facing forward to kind of have this face as if saying “Ooooh, look at this delicious mess!” It's odd and also kind of endearing.