President Whitten gift box

Ever get a project assigned that is couched as “a fun one”? That was how this project started. In theory, this should have been fun. It’s a gift box after all. Yet, somehow…not fun. At every turn there were issues — the size of box, the style of box, the printing/wrapping of the box, printing SNAFUs, pandemic-related supply chain slow-downs, unknown dimensions of the main gift it was being designed to hold, etc. Thankfully, it all came together in the end. Can’t have the new university President getting a bad first impression. Not on my watch.

The package included a commercially-available, black gift box with magnetic flap closures. The inner and outer wraps were custom designed and printed on a thin vinyl. Included was a tray insert made of thick, black-edged foam core with half-circle notches for easy removal from the box. The tray supported two letter-sized booklets — one newly designed and written for this presentation. The two booklets were held together with a custom-printed 2-inch belly band.

Under the tray were all the gifts. The main gift — a Mophie Powerstation Go Rugged with air compressor — was inserted into a dye-sub printed, microfiber drawstring bag. The bag was designed with matching motifs to the box and booklets. Other gifts included a tote bag, pen, coaster set, and a custom journal notebook designed by my lovely colleague Alaa Fadag.