The gift served to showcase Just Design’s unusual take on the ordinary, skill with packaging, and unbounded creativity.
– Thelmarie Brink, Just Design
The urge to celebrate the holidays by whipping up something clever and creative for your clients can be immense. Yet the last thing you want is for your special creation to get lost amongst the other end-of-year packages your clients receive. This was the challenge South African agency Just Design faced last year. The result? An inventive holiday cracker that pulls apart to reveal three types of prizes, one of them quite delicious.
Just Design wanted it to be a seasonal gift “that inspires and delights but also ties back to the company’s core principles of people-centric design, passion and innovative thinking,” explains Thelmarie Brink.
The Christmas cracker itself, a tradition adopted from the days when the nation used to be four separate British colonies, is an eye-catching, tasteful affair. The use of grey De Halm chipboard and yellow paper in either end really allow the “Just” logo to shine.
“The original idea was quite far-fetched and required lots of production and technical expertise,” Thelmarie admits. “The most difficult thing was to figure out how to make the cracker ‘crack.’ That was done by creating a perforation around the center of the cracker to ensure the thicker De Halm board would tear open when you pull the ends of the cracker.”
Once opened, you find yourself with further treats to share:
- A pair of laser-cut cardboard sunglasses informing the recipient that “You don’t need eyes to see, what you need is vision.”
- A fortune cookie rocking the company’s trademark yellow whose fortune assures you that “Your future is anything you can imagine it to be with Just Design.”
Perhaps most impressive is the build-it-yourself cardboard stationery holder in the form of South Africa’s state animal, the springbok, a type of antelope, accompanied by a Just Design pencil and the words “Write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” It’s really the die cut details that make this such a treasure, the wisps of “grass” at the beast’s feet being a particularly nice touch.
“The paper stock board, folding and assembling of all the pieces were a real challenge,” confides Thelmarie. “It was quite tricky to figure out how best to make everything fit inside the cracker and then build up once it was all outside the cracker. Choosing the right paperboard and numerous meetings with the production team ensured that we did many trials and mock-ups to get the desired effect.”
The three weeks Just Design invested in bringing all of these elements together paid off, she says. “Clients responded with enthusiastic joy. Overall it was an engaging, interactive and memorable way of thanking clients, evoking a smile, and keeping the agency top-of-mind.”
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