V-Cube 2 Packaging (Case study)
Summary
V-CUBE™ products are manufactured under V-CUBE™ technology, invented and patented worldwide by the Greek Engineer Panagiotis VERDES. V-CUBE™ technology made possible the construction of a cube with an unlimited number of layers, providing safe and smooth rotation! Their construction offers a twofold revolutionary approach to the specific game family and made the cubes of more than 5 layers “a reality”, something that believed to be unattainable for over 20 years!
The Executive director of Verdes Innovations, gave Matadog Design the task in late 2010 to develop the new packaging for the new 2-layer V-Cube product. V-CUBE™ 2 product was still under development so no alpha prototype was ready to work on.
The main design challenge was to create a new packaging design that would give the product high perceived value while being unique and not exceeding a max. production cost of 20 euro cents.
The task was not easy. The product was not ready yet, and we had to work with a paper prototype cube since there was a very tight deadline. The beta packaging prototype would be available to us at the prepress phase with an increased risk of failure. Everything had to be very carefully planned and executed.
The packaging design process took almost 4 months. Countless quick and dirty prototypes were made, and due to product exporting all over the world we had to make several adjustments to the design before final approval for production to make sure that the product would arrive safe and in the best shape.
This packaging design was issued a patent by the Trademarks and Designs Registration Office.
Project Overview
- Investigate and identify the packaging for the upcoming V-Cube
- The packaging must give high perceived quality
- The 21st century cube
- V-Cube target group should love the new design
What V-Cube is?
(video by Dionyssis Bouloutzas)
"Their construction offers a twofold revolutionary approach to the specific game family and made the cubes of more than 5 layers “a reality”, something that believed to be unattainable for over 20 years!"
The Objective
With a max. production cost of 20 euro cents(50.000 run) the packaging should give a high perceived value
The packaging materials used were limited due to budget limitations.
Designing attractive, durable and reusable packaging that consumers would love to buy right and then.
Key Issues
- Achieving the desired production cost goal
- Uniqueness and dinstinctiveness
- Designing a new unique packaging structure
- Working on a paper prototype cube
- 2 different cube dimensions that had to fit in one packaging with fixed dimensions
- Easy storage on the shelf
- Packaging material limitations due to low budget
- Very tight deadline
We benchmarked all competitors packaging in order to be dinstinctive.
competition v-cube 2 packaging
PHASE 1 – INSIGHT
During the research phase, we collected all competitive cubes in the market for study and afterwards we took the strategic decision to design packaging for the cube that had to be 100% visible to the consumer since the cube was a really beautiful product. Competitors use mostly blister packaging or the classic hexagonal one.
PHASE 2 – CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
Concepts from idea sketching to visualisation.
The selected packaging design was a result of brainstorming and other idea generation methods. After countless sketches, the final packaging cocncept was approved for further development.
Quick and dirty prototypes were made to evaluate if it can be manufactured with the available materials before proceeding to the next development phase. All the weaknesses of the packaging construction were revealed following the alpha prototype creation. We played around with many solutions before coming to the optimal one which was unusual but functional fusing two completely different materials.
quick sketches - packaging structurals (optimal solution exploration)
structural packaging design exploration, triangle logic explanation approved packaging
PHASE 3 – DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
Developing the chosen packaging design concept in detail, adaptation to production requirements and visualisatons.
Packaging Artwork inspiration
(video by Dionyssis Bouloutzas)
How we came up with the final packaging artwork
We used the same packaging key artwork for the two new cubes V-Cube2 and V-Cube 3. Below is the research phase of V-Cube series that is used in this case also.
We played around with the cubes, watched many videos with speed cubers from V-Cube events around the world.
- The key function of this product is ROTATION.
- We extend this function to find the creative element that characterize V-Cube products. RINGS.That is the most appropriate creative element and was selected the key element.
- "The 21st Century Cube" lead us to a futuristic direction. We found inspiration from space and especially planet SATURN. The key artwork was inspired by Saturn's rings.
We then selected the packaging color palette for each product from V-Cube2 and V-Cube3 and did a little logo refresh.
On the other side, we further researched the functionality and secondary packaging of the choosen packaging design.
10 pack secondary packaging "triangle logic" on the shelf (triangle logic applied - tiling feature)
final packaging prototype
PHASE 4 – DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION
Implementing and fine-tuning the design. Prototypes for final launch approval used.
We finalized the packaging artwork and the production was supervised on all stages. A design patent was filled in the Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
PHASE 5 – ARTWORK & PRODUCTION
Packaging artwork, production support & quality control. Design Patent Application.
PHASE 6 – LAUNCH
Launch, evaluation and documentation
Recognition
The V-Cube 2 patented packaging has received international design awards included a Pentaward, a Summit Creative award and a Creativity award, and has been featured in many international design books and packaging websites and blogs.
Mr. Kioroglou Founder and CEO of Matadog next to Mr. Konstantinos Verdes and the jury President Gérard Caron.
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