Pip Blind Box
Project Goal
Create a blind box series based on the four seasons. The character “Pip” will have 4 different variations, a brand, packaging design, and poster design. This bosy of work will be created for the 2025 Graduating Exhibition at Medicine Hat College over the course of one semester.
Project Solution
The Pip Blind Box is currently in progress and will be displayed at the MHC 2025 Grad Show titled “living:room” opening on April 12, 2025. Check out my process below in the meantime!
January 7 2025
Coming up with the the idea to make a blind box took a few days. I spend this time exploring what I wanted to do for my grad show project. My goal was to not make something in theory, I wanted to make something real. One other standout idea I had was redesigning textbooks and lessons for the Alberta Math Curriculum. I find a lot of people I know weren’t able to enter their dream careers because they struggled learning math in middleschool and highschool. I would’ve done probably more researching than I could handle within three months and didn’t have the time to do this idea justice, so I moved on.
I was talking with friends about concepts for our grad show theme (our class eventually went with “living:room) and one of my concepts was “limited edition”. This eventually led up into talking about blind boxes.
I said “I really wish I could make a blind box for my grad show”.
Ten minutes later I realized there is nothing stopping me from doing that other than myself. I immediately fully commited to this concept.
January 10 2025
I dove straight into my sketchbook to ideate upon what the characters in my blind box could look like. Here is what I came up with:
January 25 2025
All of the sketches can only help so much before taking it into a 3D space. I had a clear vision in my head so I jumped right in. This was the base figure I created to base the variations from:
I loved making the fingers on the arms. They’re extremely simplified but perfectly adorable. The base of her hair is a buzzcut to allow for a variety of hairstyles like slicked back, ponytails, or long hair. I created four different variations based on the four different seasons. Considering the three month time allowance for this project, I decided four different figures was a good goal. It was my first time using Nomad Sculpt to model, it ended up being pretty simple to use and I appreciated being able to bring it around on my Ipad so I could work on it with any spare minute. This is a quick video of what sculpting looked like inside the app:
February 12 2025
I finished the 3D models for the class Critique before Reading Week. They turned out so awesome and I got amazing feedback!
I specifically asked the class about the summer and fall figures becasue they weren’t as effective as summer and spring. The main feedback was the summer figure looked too conservative and that’s why it wasn’t meshing with the others. The fall figure lacked something cute and unique. Winter has her earmuffs, and spring has her barettes, so what could I add to fall? It was also pointed out that the neck was too long, and it looked disconnected. I can’t unsee it now. After presenting, I noticed I liked the figures with singular items of clothes —dress, jacket, and overalls. I wanted to find something similar for fall. I take my notebook for this project everywhere and write all of my thoughts in it. These are my chaotic notes from critique: (black is what I prepared, blue is during critique)
February 25 2025
I spent my week off with my 3D printer trying to get my figure perfect and tangible. I needed to re-adjust the figure a few times. I started by making the neck shorter, but removing the supports from that overhang was basically impossible. After finding that out, I re-printed with no neck and the new design has grown on me, partially because of how it looks and partially because of how much easier cleaning off the figure is. Below you can see my failures and a possible success in the process of being cleaned.
These are the finalized designs. Even though fall was my least favourite a week ago, it ended up being my new favourite after some TLC!
February 27 2025
The date of the gallery opening is quickly creeping up which means that I am now also focusing on branding my character. I decided on the name Pip because it’s the perfect amount of cute and feels good to say. It feels positive, like saying I’ve got a pep in my step. My french classmate pronounces it “Peep” and I thought that was really cute too. For the visual identity I want to continue exploring physical media/textures and incorporating it into graphic design (which is also a large theme in the visual identity in the Grad Show). Here is the initial moodboard I made:
When collecting imagery for the moodboard I got the chance to read about Yoshitomo Nara and he was really inspiring. The exhibition he did titled “I Don’t Mind, If You Forget Me” included his 2D hand drawn/painted artwork and his 3D figures of his characters. I thought this display was awesome and is exactly what I’m going for! I almost wish I hadn’t seen it because it’s so spot on.
Other textures mainly feature pencil crayon and watercolour. I was also interested in how the felt and clay design looked.
February 28 2025
I started sketching the logo for Pip and loved the one below the most. I wanted to incorporate the half circle shape within the counters and tittle. I am loving how it looks so far. Below is also the test I did with tabloid sized paper to see if Pip could fit inside. Printing on Tabloid paper helps to save costs and lets me construct it myself, which is tedious but very enjoyable.