Gifting Design

Research

The majority of my research process consisted of texting back and forth with my mentor, Giulia, to get to know her, researching quotes for design inspiration, and learning about Giulia’s favorite styles of design.

First, I made a list of questions to ask my mentor that I thought would aid my project development.

Brainstorm of possible gifts based on her interests she’s told me so far.

List of quotes, mainly found from Pinterest.

During my research of design quotes, I chose to focus on the quote, “make it simple, but significant”, because I thought it provided a good description of my own design style. This quote served as a foundation for the rest of my ideas because I already knew I wanted the gift to be something both functional and sentimental/significant. I knew I wanted this quote to serve as my initial inspiration, but I also decided to ask my mentor what her favorite quote was to aid in further development.

Ultimately, I decided to choose, “The best design is invisible”, (which has seemingly been quoted by Dieter Rams and Jared Spool in a couple variations) as my final quote for inspiration because it was a good combination of both my favorite quote and Giulia’s’. Both quotes explained that the best design is unnoticeable, yet still significant and therefore serves the customer or viewer in a certain way.

A second list of brainstorming additional gift ideas and questions to ask her.

After continuing to talk to my mentor Giulia, I did research on her favorite design styles and her favorite designer in order to influence my future decisions.

Notes I took to better understand Giulia’s top two favorite design styles, Swiss International and Modernism, as well as her favorite designer, Massimo Vignelli.

I also did research on possible color palettes according to her favorite colors. Her favorite colors include green, beige, and brown because these colors make her “feel so happy/peaceful”. Since these are two feelings I thought were also important to have my gift invoke in her, I decided to use these colors as the main color scheme of the gift.

Giulia’s vision board that she sent me for color inspiration.

The color palette I created based on her vision board.

Exercises

Exercise 1: Best Gift

Notes taken on my favorite gift I’ve received which was my grandmother’s necklace.

Exercise 2: Container

Notes in my sketchbook of my brainstorm for the exercise.

For this exercise, the object from my tool kit that I decided to create a container for was a bottle of tacky glue. Since tacky glue is non-toxic, I decided to cater my container towards children by using an eye-catching, colorful design in the form of a hexagonal prism so the shape was more interesting than a rectangular box.

The template drawn out on bristol paper.

After creating the template, I decided to make each face of the prism a different color of the rainbow to draw a child’s eye to the box. I also created a tab as the closure method so it would be simple for children to open.

Iterations

My first iteration of a concept for my gift design was a collapsable travel journal inspired by her love of traveling and plans to study abroad in the summer.

Notes in my sketchbook about a possible journal design.

After communicating with Giulia, I learned that she hasn’t journaled about her experiences in a long time so I began to sketch some other possibilities. The first idea I looked into was sewing a passport journal with a personalized cover. I planned to sew the holder together using faux leather and put her name on the cover with vinyl using a heat transfer process.

Sketches of a passport holder in my sketchbook.

After looking at materials at Joanns and considering the logistics of both learning to sew and putting it together within the time restrictions, I decided it wasn’t the most reasonable option. This led me to thinking about my third idea which was a personalized luggage tag.

Sketchbook page consisting of a list of what is most important to my gift as well as sketches of a possible luggage tag design.

Since “evoke inspiration” was second on my list of “hierarchy of importance” for the gift, I decided the luggage tag didn’t accomplish this as well as a different gift could. I decided to to shift back to my idea of making a travel journal because I believe it is both sentimental and functional. However, since Giulia hadn’t journaled about her travels in a while, I wanted to make sure the spreads in this journal specifically inspired her to begin journaling again like she used to, through the use of easy prompts to follow and the design fitting in with her personal aesthetic.

Sans-serif font options chosen from Adobe Fonts.

Front Cover Iterations

I designed multiple iterations for the front and back cover designs before choosing the final version. In all of the iterations, I used the font, Helvetica, to incorporate Giulia’s love for typography and tested multiple design compositions that reflected elements of Swiss International Design.

More Design Tests and Back Cover Iterations

The font Helvetica organized in a design that was inspired by the work of Massimo Vignelli, specifically a brand poster he designed for “Knoll International”.

Journal Page Iterations

Sketches of possible journal page layouts.

After testing the first layout on the “best memories” page, I decided that the lines provided too much pressure on Giulia to fill out all of them and spend more time writing than needed. I wanted these prompts to inspire Giulia to begin journaling again, so changing to boxes with empty space allowed for more freedom within her responses. I also decided to change the font for the titles of these pages from a cursive font to the font, “underground”, which is also in the sans-serif family, in order to stay consistent with the text on the front cover and the overall style of the journal.

Then I created iterations of a weekly highlight page to go after the daily reflection prompts. I designed these to have my previous typography designs saying “Giulia” and “travel” in the bottom right corner. However, I only had two prompts I wanted to include on these pages so I decided to sketch two famous monuments in Italy, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Colosseum, to add to these pages and fill the space better.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa sketched on sketchbook app and then vectorized in Adobe Illustrator.

The Colosseum sketched on sketchbook app and then vectorized in Adobe Illustrator.

Link to reference image for my Leaning Tower of Pisa sketch.

Link to reference image for my colosseum sketch.

Next, I added the vectored sketches to the weekly highlight spreads and also designed a blank “Notes and Sketches” page to go after each weekly highlight so she can fill the pages with anything inspiring she encounters during her travels and use these sketches as future design inspiration.

Lastly, I sketched out a storyboard of a possible ordering of pages within the journal.

Container Form Iterations

My original idea was to make a rectangular box that the journal simply slid into, however, after speaking with Emily, I realized I needed to better connect the container to the ideas present in the gift. I decided to look back on previous concept iterations in my sketchbook and decided to add triangular flaps to the rectangular box I had previously considered to make the container resemble a luggage tag and connect directly to the theme of travel.

Initial sketches of the form of the container.

To begin constructing the container, I sketched test versions of a template on drawing paper.

Then I worked on putting together the template, connecting everything with tape to temporarily hold it together while I made final decisions on the form and template creation.

After the first test of the box was completely put together without tabs for closure.

Test of adding a loop at the top to represent the adjustable straps on luggage tags.

Detail image of how I connected one end of the strap onto the box in a way that it could be pulled out as part of how the container is opened.

Detail image of what this connection looks like from the outside.

Tests of adding tabs to assist in the closure of the container.

Container Design Iterations

Test design a graphic resembling a “fill in the blank” insert commonly on the outside of luggage tags. I also chose to use a font that resembled handwriting as if she filled out the information herself.

Concept Statement

This design explores the ways in which a travel journal can serve as inspiration for my mentor, Giulia throughout her study abroad program in Italy this summer and future design experience. The quote driving the final deliverable is, “The best design is invisible” which is Giulia’s favorite quote and her basis for any design project. I let this quote guide my design decisions when creating the journal, mainly by using a color palette that inspires her and fits well into her aesthetic as well as creating journal prompts that are practical and communicate what they’re supposed to without a second thought. Since I know the importance of this quote in Giulia’s design journey, I added it to the back cover in Italian to incorporate her current studies of the Italian language. I also incorporated designs throughout the journal that reflect elements of Giulia’s favorite designer, Massimo Vignelli, and her favorite design styles, Swiss International and Modernism by using the font Helvetica on the covers and another sans-serif font throughout the rest of the pages. The final travel journal that I designed includes seven sections for the seven weeks Giulia will be spending in Italy this summer. The order of the pages consists of seven daily reflection pages, a weekly highlight page, and then a notes and sketches page where she can record her own ideas throughout her experiences abroad. Both the daily reflection page and the weekly highlight page include mini prompts to guide Giulia’s responses with the intention of inspiring her to begin journaling again as it was once something she enjoyed doing, but has not recently spent as much time on. I intend for the gift to invoke creativity and exploration for Giulia who cherishes the ability to explore and be curious. Overall, I designed the gift to be both functional and sentimental as the color palette and design style fit her personal aesthetic, while also keeping a record of memories from an important trip all in one place.

Production

Final Cover Decisions

Final front cover design using the font, Helvetica.

Final back cover design with the quote written in Italian.

Page Production

To prep the layouts for printing, I added circles marking the places I wanted to hole punch so the pages fit into the binding and a dotted-line outline to mark where to cut the border of the pages. Then, I organized the pages into pdfs so they were ready to print and put two of each page layout on one 8.5 by 11 art board to print more efficiently. I printed the cover pages on a glossy card stock to provide a thick protection on the outside and the inside pages on regular printer paper.

Next, I attempted to hole punch the edges, but the hole puncher I was originally using created circles that were too large, so I learned how to use an alternative hole punching tool and a hammer to individually make them the exact size I needed.

Image of my workspace during the hole-punching process.

Container Production

After choosing the design I wanted on the outside of the container, I created a document of three templates that I planned to print at Fedex.

Although I had planned to print these templates at Fedex, the dimensions of the templates would only fit on a poster board option, but this option wouldn’t be done by the project deadline. Instead of printing the entire template, I decided to make the template out of Bristol paper instead and print each face of the design separately, then glue them on with tacky glue. This resulted in precision that did not meet my ideal standards, but was the best answer to the problem at hand and in order to complete the project by the deadline. I printed all of these files on glossy card stock to make the container more sturdy.