First Pass At Box Art!
I did this in Illustrator, importing the beaver drawing into the file. Then I took a screen shot of the box front, and tweaked it a little in Photoshop. I don't know if I'll really be able to mention Gentle Giant on the packaging or not, so that part's up in the air right now. Lemme know what you think!Labels: after work projects, beaver toy, jeff pidgeon, packaging
posted by Jeff Pidgeon at
6:14 PM
9 Comments:
I like it ... and think that Gentle Giant would be delighted to be credited on the packaging.
I was a little surprised by the "Happy Beaver" identification. Will you give a title to each color variation? If so, I'd bet that "Dirty Beaver" will be your best seller.
Actually, have you even thought of creating names for the whole family ... I guess if you go that route, I like the illiterative Beaver couplings ... Bianca, Beth, Barbara, Becky, Betty, Bertha, Bonnie (the red variant, of course), Billy, Bobby, Barney, Bert, Bret, Bart, Bruce, Byron, Bradley ... you get the idea.
I was trying to think of something that I could name the toy (or character) so I wouldn't have to put the generic Beaver Toy on the box.
I'm considering a 'proper' name (and I like illiterative names too), but so far nothing sounds right, or has been taken already. Since 'Dirty Beaver' sounded good for the smudgy, grey-and-black version, I thought 'Happy Beaver' might be good for the standard one.
I'm also considering wood-like names, too, like 'Chippy' or 'Splinters', but I'm not sure yet. That might be a little too cutesy.
That reminds me of my childhood. I love it. Just a thought. There is a lot of white space. Did you consider cropping him and enlarging to fit bigger in the space? You'd have to move Vin's credit, but I thought I'd ask. As strong of a drawing as it is, we don't necessarily need to see the whole thing... I don't think... I'm not a great designer. That said you may want to completely disregard everything I've written here.
I love what's going on here. And you obviously know what you're doing. Great stuff!
Dennis
Hmmm ... like the idea of wood-like names, but Woody and Buzz have been taken.
There are different types of trees to consider ... Ash, Maple, Birch, Willow, Buckeye, Cedar, Myrtle, Douglas, Cherry (not quite as good as Dirty Beaver), Sequoia, Olive (black) ... again, you get the general idea.
But before you go rushing into the package design, you might want to consider how it might impact your costs ... each differently-styled box means a separate press run. The costs may force you to go with a single box large character design with small art to show the others you hope to offer -- black, brown, blonde, red, dirty, etc.
Jeff, I love the toy. I would suggest that you come up with a logo for yourself - something that you can put on all your toys (think McFarlane). I also think it would be cool to use your signature instead of typing your name.
Keep up the good work, I can't wait to get me one.
This first run of the toys will all look the same - so changing the box design won't impact me right away. In general, the later runs will be cheaper, since I won't have as many start-up costs (creating the mold, etc). Adding new box costs might be okay.
I might want to think ahead, though, to how I can easily change the box for each new version of the toy without a lot of work.
I have been thinking about making a logo for myself, so I'll try to come up with something and see how it works. I love old toy company logos, so why not put some of that love onto the box?
I tried adding my signature to the current design, but I couldn't get it to work. I'll change the box design more, and try to accommodate it in a better way.
I'll try a larger, cropped version of the drawing too - I was thinking that the design might be a little airy.
I also have a completely different idea for the box that I came up with this morning - I'll try to whip it up soon, and post it for thoughts!
That reminds me - Gentle Giant can't allow me to put their name on the box. Legal branding stuff. Oh, well! No hard feelings.
Hi Jeff,
I've been really likeing your blog. Congratulations on getting the toy made. I may do one myself. It would be really interesting if you could blog about the process of getting him made from getting a sculptor to finding a company to produce him etc.
Gabriel
Hi Gabriel,
Thanks for the nice feedback! I've been writing about the development of my toy all along, but a lot of the pre-December '06 posts were deleted when I had blog problems.
I'll try to re-write some of the early toy history, so you can benefit from the path that I took.
Post a Comment
<< Home