RIVAL Sports (Student Project)

Designer: Nathaniel H Killam
Project Type: Student Project
School: University of Wisconsin-Stout
Course: Packaging and Product Graphics
Tutor: Nagesh Shinde
Location: Menomonie, Wisconsin
Packaging Contents: Basketball / soccer ball / football
Packaging Materials: Paper, paperboard

Tasked with creating a project with a set of three items. After lots of brainstorming and ideation I landed on sports ball packaging. Most of the packaging is not very creative in their shape or graphic treatments. On top of that, each sport has a different shape and design to their packaging. I wanted to create a system that allows one sport to flow effortlessly to another while also maximizing the shelf space and having a more interesting and eye catching look. As for the graphic elements, I wanted to clean up the package and remove all the generic “sporty” graphics to have a very minimal appearance while allowing colors to differentiate the sports.

What’s Unique?
When deciding on the shape of the packaging I went over a lot of options. Initially enjoying the shape of a hexagon but not the fact that on a flat shelf there’s wasted space between the packages and so I adopted a modified hexagonal shape. The packaging graphics also allow the package to exist upside down and allow them to interlock to save space. This also makes it easier for someone to stock them onto a shelf because they don’t have to worry which way they place it.