Project Requirements
Make a logo for either an existing company or an imaginary company, then create one die-cut box and one die-cut bag that employ a unified theme.

Client Name and Description
Dancing Dragon--a well-established company that sells all kinds of dragon-related items (T-shirts, posters, statues, masks, stickers, etc.) through the mail and Internet. For the purposes of this project, it was assumed that they had chosen to open an outlet store in a mall and therefore required themed packaging.

Client's Objective
To aquire bag and box designs that will appeal to the widest possible audience, alienating the fewest number of potential buyers. The primary message that should be sent is, "We sell dragon items for everyone."

Target Audience
Dragon fans of all ages, backgrounds, and descriptions; the company sells items that people of any tax bracket can buy, and their available dragons run the gamut from cute and cuddly to dark and bloodthirsty.

How My Solution Works
My explaination for designing the logo and type as I did can be found elsewhere.

In this instance, I felt that simplicity would be the best way to go, since my target audience was so huge that every new addition to the design would increase the risk of alienating part of them. My logo and type had already been designed to appeal to this huge group by embodying some of the concepts associated with dragons in general, so I decided to simply let those elements speak for themselves.

This version of the packaging sprang from my original intent to make something that looked kind of fantasy/medieval, as those concepts are generally associated with dragons. The first designs of this sort involved metal banding and chains, but these were removed as the design was simplified to its current state. The leather texture is very earthy and recalls more primitive cultures that bound books and chests in leather, and made bags out of the same material as well. This is accentuated by the Photoshop techniques used on the logo, which give it the appearance of a brand burned into the products. (Brands suggest the use of fire, which is another draconic connection.) Because the leather bag and box are very simple, they remain extremely neutral. The logo and text stand out as the most important, noticeable parts of the design.

In the case of the box, the text on the sides was split so that the complete "Dancing Dragon" name can be read only when the box is closed; this was done simply to create a more interesting look.

The part of the bag shown in the above image is one of two required to actually make the bag. It was designed along the lines of vinyl pull-string bags, since this style of bag was in use back in the medieval times, and the illusion would be made more complete by it.

Programs Used
Photoshop 6.0 (textures), Illustrator 9.0.