The following is a parodical case study to test how far I could take the limited capacity of my craftsmanship with regards to giving gifts. The pursuit itself was genuine and intentional in nature, with the only desired success metric being happiness—the bigger the curve of the users' smile, the more successful :) Enjoy.
P R E F A C E
While Christmas gifts themselves are intentional or at least most like to believe, the way they're wrapped, packaged, and put together are usually afterthoughts. With the holidays being notorious for producing busier people, who could blame the gift-giver? With the hustle and bustle relatively quiet in 2020, I took the advantage of the time by adding a refined bow on an otherwise mediocre present...literally.
D I S C O V E R Y
The discovery portion of this project proved to be relatively bleak considering the intention was to surprise the end user. With such a variegated demographic it was fairly difficult to create a one-size-fits-all solution.
What defined the discovery was consequently a retrospection of the previous year. I took a peek at what I had done and in true iterative fashion, I sought ways to make the packaging better.
Some guiding questions I asked myself along the way were: what could we omit this year? What can we add without overpowering the different elements of the present? What does the end product look like?
R E S E A R C H
To my surprise, however, I found texts and emails asking certain friends and family whether or not they wanted presents for the coming holidays. I don't know why I thought I would receive an answer that wasn't "no," but one can never be too sure.
I logged the answers I received on a spreadsheet and consequently a visual graph that would aid in reminding me how many presents I am privileged in disseminating this year.
I'm thankful in multiple ways, not the least of which is being surrounded by a relatively small number of close friends and family.
I D E A T I O N
With a very rough wireframe of what the end product would look like, I felt ready to move forward with the creation of an unnecessarily over-the-top Christmas present.
While sketching I kept in mind the elements of the package that I considered lacking from the year previous. I aimed to enhance these areas with feedback gleaned from the recipients of past. The end goal was a present with three layers of complexity.
