Last month I shared with our blog readers the winning idea for the Kids’ Science Challenge Zero Waste challenge: Joshua Yi’s innovative concept for toy packaging that becomes part of the fun. Joshua recently traveled to New York City to make his package design come to life with the help of SPC members Steve Mahler of Caraustar Industries Inc. and Laura Tufariello of Design and Source Productions. Joshua shared some insights from his experience building his package prototype in a recent blog post:
“Joshua, it is going to be a great, great day today,” I told myself on the way to NYC by train. Can you imagine working with scientists, making your ideas come to life, and having a great city tour in the Big Apple? That’s what I am going to do today and tomorrow!!!!
Away my dad and I went to our first stop at Caraustar at the Old Brooklyn Navy Yard…At Caraustar, Mr. Mahler and I designed my box design on the computer. It was amazing how you could “draw” on the computer! We revised and edited some glitches in the schematics. It was strange how the box would look when it was layout flat. After we drew the boxes we programmed the huge plotter to cutout the boxes. The plotter was a 2-yard by 1-yard square machine that looked like a small printer connected to 2 computers. There were 3 cylinders with tools that could cut, crease, and fold. There was also a small targeting laser. The plotter can do its job with great precision — it made everything exactly the right dimensions. It was also very efficient — it took less than five minutes to make my box, as complicated as it might be. It turned a regular 26” paper into a sophisticated box.
…After the plotter was done cutting, together we drove to Design and Source…I showed Mr. Metzner, Mrs. Sanders, Mrs. Tufariello, Mr. Mahler, and my dad my designs I made at Caraustar industries. Then we listed all the things either I needed or wanted to be on the box cover. Some of the things we listed were advertisements, race decals, and warnings (e.g. XX). Then we started to design the graphics. For the drawings I drew two of my monster trucks racing each other with an advertisement in the middle saying “This box can turn into a racetrack!” Then I put warnings in the corners and a checkerboard border against a neon green background. It was cool how the cars looked like they were racing each other and how everything stood out from the bright green.
You can read more from Joshua on his exciting trip to New York on the Kids’ Science Challenge blog.
