Paperboard Packaging Alliance Student Design Challenge
Student Design Challenge Honorable Mention
This PPA Student Design Challenge was to design a toolkit to be distributed to educators by the TICCIT® (Trees into Cartons, Cartons into Trees) program, engaging and educating students age 8–10 via environmental activities focused on the renewability and sustainability of paper and paper-based packaging. Read more about the challenge here.
Our team was comprised of two graphic designers (myself and Sierra Babcock), one industrial designer (Daeya Shealy), and one packaging scientist (Anna Schum-Houck). As a graphic designer, I developed branding and illustration styles, created the interior layouts, and unified teammates’ assets to keep the design consistent and on brand.
The target audience
The target audience for the TICCIT Toolkit is third through fifth graders in the United States, as well as their educators, and administrators. The design and teaching components need to be appealing to both this young demographic and the educators, and be easily understood for ease of use in the classroom.
This audience encompasses a vast spectrum of cultural perspectives, income levels, and abilities. With this in mind, we designed our teaching components and activities to be as accessible as possible to this broad spectrum of students and schools.
SWOT analysis
Strengths
Educational and interactive for students and teachers
Large market segment
Beneficial to the environment
Weaknesses
Teachers’ lesson plans may already be established
Requires some extra materials
Opportunities
Expansion to at-home learning
Box can become a collectible item
Threats
Limited school budgets
Other educational programs like T.R.E.E.S. School Program, Green Schools Initiative School Seedling Program, et cetera
Sketches
Prototypes
Graphic approach
Because the toolkit is bound for use in classrooms, the graphics needed to appeal to children, and at the same time, accommodate large amounts of information for educator use.
To accomplish this, we developed a nature-based geometric illustration style with a robust color palette, to make the graphics flexible and interesting while keeping them uncomplicated and easy to produce. The geometric forms build on TICCIT’s existing logo, the hexagonal tree.
How our design works
The outer shipping package opens via tear strip to reveal two functional elements: a sapling box dieline, and a primary package containing five educational activities as well as information for parents and educators, and related Next Generation Science Standards.
The primary package utilizes the basic form of a book, but each component is a separate folio identified by a numbered tab. Each folio can be used efficiently, separate from its companion pieces.
The dieline is used to make boxes in which students will plant saplings provided through the TICCIT program.
The activities in the primary package are based on resources TICCIT currently refers to (originally by The Responsible Package), but our team has modified them to be more intellectually and physically engaging for students, and more clear for educators.
Benefits of our design
Practical
The secondary package is used as the shipping box, eliminating the need for additional materials. The sapling container dieline is printed on the interior of the shipping box for the user to trace or scan, and the primary package can be stored on a bookshelf for easy access over time.
All elements that need to be reproduced and distributed (worksheets, letters to parents) are printed on the back of the respective folio, so they can be photocopied on standard letter-size paper and will never get lost.
Environmentally friendly
The compact, low-waste package is made of 100% 24pt paperboard, which is renewable and recyclable. The design will be printed using eco-friendly soy-based inks.
Interior folios & teaching components
Package renders
Renders created by Anna Schum-Houck.