Box Clever

Box Clever Brief

Create a collection of objects which represent some aspect of your journey and thoughts around your specific Rough Guide location. Expand your concept by adding in objects and visuals to create an inspiring group of sympathetic or contradictory groupings. Take care when choosing as the collection will form the basis of your design development. It will provide an image bank, the source of inspiration and the mood of your consequent technical blocks.

• Scale and breadth of space are an important consideration e.g. this could be an investigation of a very tiny world in detail: from a patch of ground to a wider area, street level to locality.
• Consider connections between objects e.g. hybrids, a juxtaposition of unlikely elements, sequences, storytelling.  
• Reflect on an experience, something unexpected or mysterious.
• You could use a symbol or an object that represents the whole or part of a story (synecdoche).
• If objects or an entire space were taken out of context you might notice things about them that would normally pass you by. Tiny details in appearance which once you may have deemed comforting and inviting might now seem to be awkward and unsettling or vice versa.
• Colour, texture and form are crucial elements to consider and a personal identity is essential.
• Your objects are to be transported and stored in a box, to then be displayed on your desk as a pop-up.

THE BOX

• The box is your container. It should be light enough to transport, strong enough to contain objects, small enough to place on an A3 piece of paper; adapted, customized and suited to purpose.
• Boxes are satisfying objects, they keep things safe, they can be stacked and they help us to organize space, they can have compartments or layers, they can be bespoke.
• Your box is your personalized container the contents are vital, they should inform the structure of your box and they should be inspiring.
• Box research:  boxes which contain kits: tools, medical, musical, sewing or lunch, flat packs, peep shows, camera obscura.

THE POPUP

• Consider the relationship between objects how they could be displayed – in groupings, stacked or linked, formally, labeled or joined. 
• The box or container could act as a device for display. It could unfold or transform. 
• We are asking you to respond to your collection developing your own visual language, responding to colour, texture, juxtapositions, image and form.

In response to this brief, I considered my Rough Guide and the objects I had been collecting during Rough Guide research. They were all an eclectic collection of objects I had found on the floor; mostly small scale, all very different, tactile, colourful and seductive. To compliment these qualities, I wanted to make a compartmental box; something which is broken down into sections which suits the small scale nature of the objects.

Lucas Samaras

Samaras, L. (1963) Box. [online image]. Available at: <http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/samaras-box-t07186> [Accessed 11 November 2012].

I began by researching boxes in the library, and came across Lucas Samaras, who makes highly decorative and intriguing boxes. His boxes have a conceptual nature, rather than a practical one, yet they all tell an interesting story. His boxes were relevant to my research, since he uses found and discarded objects as his materials, and he comments on his response to the tactile nature of found objects - "this force to touch or not touch, destroy or caress, has always been with me’. (Samaras)

Considering the practical nature of the box more so, I began to look into packaging and found some really useful books with packaging nets in them. I used one of the nets to make my first box, which was compartmental as I had wanted, and I decorated it in the same style as the page that was selected for the Rough Guide.

The creation of this box was helpful in realising the practicalities of a box. The day to day use of the box caused weathering and erosion - particularly from the rain and being carried around. Nevertheless, I didn't mind this as the box was still usable, it just had another depth of character to it and you can tell that it's been well used.

After using the box I came to realise that I would need to make more, to suit the developments of the project and the needs of the objects. Although the compartmentalisation idea was useful, the way I had created the box meant that the little objects were sliding out and crossing over into other sections. I needed to consider this, as well as the stability of the box.

The second box I made was in response to the wrapping work shop. I had a clear box at home which was already separated into 4 removable sections. I removed the sections and made them into wrappings, which provide a further depth of colour and tactility. This box was a definite improvement on the last in terms of durability. Furthermore, the interior compartment walls were a lot more stable so the objects remained in their assigned compartments.

As I began to collect more and more objects, I realised I needed more compartments. I wanted to try again with making another paper box and considered box like packaging such as cereal boxes. Since I was looking at discarded, used and found objects, I thought it would be appropriate to use cereal boxes to make this box. I used a variety pack of cereal packaging and cut the boxes down, making each one into individual tiny boxes. These were then joined up, with the idea to create tiers of compartments like a chocolate box.

This was a really successful box in terms of display, since it allows you to view all the objects as individuals and compliments the tactility and small nature of the objects. I was really pleased with how this box turned out.

The final box was made to cater to the one larger object I collected. Since it didn't fit in any of the other boxes, I needed to make an individual box to house the child's shoe I had found on the floor. I wanted this box to be a bit different in the way that it opened, so I created a box inside a sleeve, which would slide out and reveal the little shoe inside.

On the whole I was really happy with both my box and object collection and I think both compliment each other well. It was useful to use the box and discover what worked and what didn't and then improve on this. I also really enjoyed the construction aspect of making the boxes, which I found quite therapeutic.