Packaging · 2024

Tuft & Needle

A card game for the well-rested, gifted with every Tuft & Needle bed, boxed like the mattress box at one-tenth scale. Print files and 3D mockups by me; ideation and copy by the team.

Client

Tuft & Needle

Year

2024

Role

Designer — print production & 3D mockups

Duration

6 Weeks

Status

Completed

Box

4.4 × 1.9 × 1.9 in (1:10 of the Queen box)

Delivered

Print Production, 3D Mockups, Packaging

[ 01 // Context & challenge ]

My role on this one was production: I produced the print-ready files and the 3D mockups. The ideation and the copy were done by the team, led by Gary, the art director, who carried this project. The insight behind it: almost nobody knows what brand of mattress they sleep on. Tuft & Needle wanted to live outside the sheets, in the living room, on the bookshelf, on the coffee table. The brief: a rectangular-prism box to house a card game, not a demonstration piece but a real product, sent as a gift with purchase to people who buy a Tuft & Needle bed. Minimal and clean.

[ 02 // The idea ]

Gary's idea, with the team: shrink the mattress box. The game, a mix of Taboo, Trivial Pursuit and a little Charades, comes in a box shaped exactly like the Queen mattress box at one-tenth scale: 44 × 19 × 19 inches becomes 4.4 × 1.9 × 1.9. A miniature that keeps the brand recognisable in the palm of a hand, and lets people show how smart they were to buy a Tuft & Needle mattress.

I worked as a designer on the packaging and box design for a Tuft & Needle brand project, producing the print-ready files and the 3D mockups. The ideation and the copy were done by the team, led by Gary, the art director, who was the most important person on this project. I worked closely with him to take the concept into a physical object, using the mockups to explore structure and scale. The project centered around a custom card game, packaged in a rectangular-prism box and sent as a gift with purchase to people who buy a Tuft & Needle bed, using a miniature version of the mattress box. The one note to design by: minimal and clean. The packaging helped bring the brand story into a more social, everyday setting while staying true to its core values of comfort and affordability. The mockups were used to present and refine the concept before moving into print. The final packaging was produced and printed as part of the campaign.

[ 03 // The system in use ]

3D mockups to test the one-tenth-scale structure and how the concept would translate into a physical object, then the print-ready production files for the box and the card deck, refined with the art director before print.