Prince of Stars: Collector Cards Box

The Process:

When I was assigned this project, I began pondering for ideas. I reflected on the stuff I had already made and remembered that during my presentation of Prince of Stars©, one of my classmates had told me how fascinating it would be if I made a set of cards for the story.

With an idea in mind, I began sketching designs of the different boxes I could use.

With some feedback from others, I chose the matchbox design in the end.

Measuring out the dimensions of some cards I had with the size I wanted, I put them into a template maker and promptly printed it out.

I did make a few different iterations in the process to come to the perfect size. (May they always be remembered because they got squished in my backpack.)

After that, it was off to digitally designing the first draft.

Here is where I discovered the the matte paper did not saturate my colours to the point I was hoping for, leading me to eventually choose gloss paper for my next draft.

Some problems I had for this design were:

- I had not designed any cards to display on the back.

- There was a huge link on the back that would be a nightmare to type out in a browser.

So, I took to Illustrator to fix my problems. With some feedback, I took the panels from my comic without the text to make them into their own little cards. But that's when another problem arose, I needed 2 more cards to fit my design. So instead of getting rid of them and going for 6 cards, I chose to add "mystery" cards to add a chance of the buyer to possibly get these "special" cards.

As I opted for a QR code as suggested by one of my instructors, I noticed an imbalance on my design. While thinking of different ways to solve this, I came across the option of adding my own logo. Placing them beside each other, it balanced the design and I was happy.

Draft 2:

This design turned out so much better than the last, there was colour and pictures on the back! The gloss really had made it pop.

But there were still problems, after a critique session/presentation with the rest of the class, I discovered the pages appeared more like a wood grain and there were odd bars across my gradients.

The pages were an easy fix, the lines, however, took a bit longer to troubleshoot. With the help of my instructors we changed some of the Illustrator export settings and tried a test print.

Draft 3:

In my last draft, the odd bars on my gradient were nearly non-existent and the pages looked more like pages.

Now you may be asking how come I didn't use this version as the introduction to this project. Let me introduce you to some of the troubles I ran into along the way.

After briefly using the materials in the classroom to cut out my project, the folding was left to my own devices as I had to work from home.

Using a ruler to help me bend the fold lines, I mistook the distance where it would crease and ended in my project becoming lopsided. This also ended with the box not being able to fit inside the cover.

Things to Do for the Next Time:

If I hopefully have the chance to reprint this project, the options that I will choose to hopefully improve the outcome of this project are:

- Practice folding on a similar paper to get a feel beforehand

- Use better tools

- Let ink dry before cutting

- Increase the length of the tabs