Making the box
The box is something that most of the creative work was designed in my sketch development, I now simply needed to refine it using CAD and create suitable drawings for manufacturing.
The design is fairly simple and has been modelled on a basic slide matchbox.
First the nets must be created, this was done using Corel Draw, and required two main stages:
1: The nets and imagery to be created
2: The net and image designs to be split to allow the image to go to print and the net to be laser cut over the image.
Below shows how this process was undertaken.
Once the design work was complete I created some prototypes on basic printer paper, this highlighted any errors with measurements and allowed fine tuning of the design before going to production.
This also allowed the retaining system to be developed and tested, see below for further information.
Once happy with the prototype box the packaging could then go into production, this involved the designed image to be firstly printed and to a suitable weight white card followed by the net being cut out by the laser cutter, this required special care and attention to ensure the two process' worked together and the net was cut out perfectly in line with the image.
During production I created several box's as I had issues with the different cards used, in the end I had to compromise with a card that gave a reasonable strength and a better image quality.
The image below shows all my prototypes and a brief description of each.
My preferred weight card is prototype 4, as this is the most rigid and holds the shape of the box nicely but lacks image resolution.
My preferred image is prototype 2 as this gives the best colour depth and highest resolution however is far to thin paper to make a box from.
In the end I used a card that provides reasonable strength and a decent image quality, although if the product went into production this is something that would need to be addressed.
Below shows the final box with the USB Stick securely inside
