Whilst working at a creative agency in Essex in the early 00s, I was the lead designer in creating the packaging for lots of new one-off toys and products for the Disney Store – I had lots of fun letting my inner child run free with these!
These dress up chests for aspiring pirates and fairies were an absolute delight to work on. Having been given the cutter for the chest containers, I was given free rein on the overall look of the chests; from the wrap-around design right down to the type of handles. Working with existing Disney artwork in terms of the characters, the rest of the design was a complete blank canvas.
This project involved creating the designs from scratch and then producing life-size prototypes, to present to the client before they approved the artwork for production.
The packaging for this Giant Floor Puzzle was inspired by its contents. Rather than simply placing full Disney characters over the packaging (in-line with many of the other Disney Store products) I really wanted to inject a sense of fun and celebrate the joy of puzzling in this product. The starburst background and bold typography also gave this product a sense of exclusivity amongst the more standard toy packaging.
Black had seldom been used previously in the packaging for Disney Store, however for these particular products it really helps to communicate exactly what is being sold.
The black background acts like a chalkboard and I depicted the requisite Disney characters as chalk outlines, to visually illustrate the product.
The typography is equally playful and the overall tone is light-hearted, suggesting play, imagination and creativity.