Afternoon Calm

Design: Mengfang Ho
Project Type: Student Project
School: Academy of Art University
Course: Packaging 1
Tutor: Kathrin Blatter
Location: San Francisco, USA
Packaging Contents: Three tea cans, gift box
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Tin cans, Paper, Wood panels
Printing Process: Inject printing, Gold Rubdown

On this project, create a gift set of tea packaging. Choose an exciting company and redesign their current packaging. Create the style that conveys the brand personality and the flavors of the tea. Consider using different materials and building a functional structure for the gift box.

The current style of the Steven Smith Teamaker is classic with feminine patterns. For this project, my illustrations were inspired by pencil sketches of plants I found. I decided to draw my own and created three sets of drawings for each tea flavor. In order to make the color of the cans consistence with the patterns in the background, I spray mounted as a color test and made sure they perfectly matched the labels. The “Lord Bergamot” and “Mao Feng Shui” are classic flavors of Steven Smith Teamaker. I chose a soft tone of green and cream colors to convey these two flavors. For the premium flavor “Bungalow,” I used a rubdown for the entire pattern to catch people’s attention of the packaging.

For the gift box, I created a custom wood box to enclose the top and bottom of the packaging. I selected the thicker wood panels and made the smooth surface of the box so the customers won’t get hurt when they touch or use the box. If the customer wants to take a tea can, they can remove the top cover easily.