I design non-food-related products too!
A previous client asked for something fun and I could not say no! I was asked to design the award given out to students at the School of Visual Arts in NYC for the Interior Design Department.
A standard award was not an option, as this was to be fun and interactive. Because this design was to be made and distributed during COVID, I designed a box as well to enrich the experience for the recipients with the possibility of an unboxing. The award will continue to be distributed each year for future winners.
The award that you play with…
I wanted to make this a collaborative award that doesn’t just sit on your shelf collecting dust. I made this to function as both a puzzle and building blocks to transfer the design process to the assembly. You can assemble it in many different ways and it will always look striking on a shelf. As this award is for students that graduate from the Interior Design program called ‘Built Environments,’ it is meant for the person who is creative and will always seek to play with their surroundings. I hope the award will be assembled in a variety of ways, with no two the same.
This is the main assembly design to the right.
The Unboxing
This little video is me taking the award out of its box and putting the award together in its basic assembly orientation.
The childlike aspect to design.
When given these pieces (see left), you can imagine multiple ways to put them together. You probably played with blocks like these when you were little. I know I did!
These students have just accomplished something great but the creativity and curiosity should never stop here. The awards bring out a playfulness in the adult, the graduate, the accomplished. These awards send this message,
“Around here, however, we don’t look backward for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious — and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
~Walt Disney