Pencil Case and Display Hybrid

    

     This package for Prismacolor artist's coloring pencils implements simplicity in form in order to provide not only convenience of transfer but applicability as a display to make the pencils easily removable and replaceable within the display.  The front half of the package folds open and closed, and locks in place via two slots on either side that snap tightly together.  When folded open, the front half can then be snapped closed again, but without encasing the pencils.  When that closed flap rests against the pencils, the entire package creates a sharp-angled stand that props up and showcases the pencils, allowing anyone to quickly pull out and push them back in the package.
   
     Pencil artists looking for a small set of mixable colors will find a varied collection like this if they are willing to work within a limited palette that can be packed into a bag or case very easily.  They would find this folding mechanism useful as a way to economically budget their working space.  Without the case, the pencils would have to be stored elsewhere, like a larger case that must be set aside from the artist's work space, or on the work space where they might roll around and get in the way without a bumper keeping them in place.
   
     In creating a case like this, the designer wants to appeal to the artist's desire for convenience of space by creating a package that uses a small surface area and displays the pencils in a manner that is easily gathered and stored.  Therefore, this package is useful at the time the artist is working their craft in their studio, and can be closed up for storage in any larger bag or shelf where the artist keeps their supplies for future use.
   
     Transparent plastic for the bulk of the package is cheap for production but also pliable for the display and case hybrid design in mind.  Plastic is also convenient for showcasing the pencils themselves as the main attraction of the overall design.  This is the package's function as a marketing tool; the artist will see exactly what they're purchasing and can base their buying decision on this emphasis of sight.  To reinforce this, the few examples of paper on the case, both the brand claiming ownership of the case at the top and the more direct advertisement at the bottom, are minimal.  The bottom advertisement space, through its highly saturated and poly-chromatic color scheme, evoke the spirit of creation to appeal to an artist's own desire to create.  It also implicates the pencils themselves as being viable tools of creation that the artist wants, that they can create this wide and varied color scheme on any compositions the artist is making.
   
     Since installation, the pencils themselves have become a wide mix of sharpened, dulled, and shortened, all demonstrating telltale signs of use.  The overall design is made rugged, "lived-in" as it were, which, if anything, strengthens the packaging's advertising power despite it no longer being a product in a store awaiting an owner.  It has already been used several times by an owner, which implies that they have found the case's function to be highly useful to them during their experience with this design. 
   
     The idea here was to produce a packaging and advertising medium for a set of colored pencils that would transcend the store shelf and provide convenience to the artist throughout the lifespan of the pencils.  The problem with such an idea is figuring out how to actually convince a buyer after purchase to recognize the package's intended function and embrace it, rather than discard the package and store the pencils elsewhere.
   
     Being made up mostly with an inexpensive and crude material like plastic, the package's aesthetic appeal is lacking.  The focus is more prominent on the wide range of colors from the pencils, so they are given the proper emphasis as intended by the package.  Divorced from that, however, the package's minimal, functional appearance can deter buyers from taking advantage of the package outside of the time of purchase. 
   
     That said, plastic is not only a good material to use to make the package cheaper for the buyer, but it is also one of the more safe and convenient mediums with which to create a transportable package like this.  Glass is a potential alternative medium that allows transparency to showcase the pencils, but glass is fragile and creates an obvious health hazard in a situation where it falls and shatters.  This plastic is durable, so it can absorb a decent degree of abuse as the artist carries it from one place to another, and thus safer than glass.
   
     Furthermore, setting aside the aesthetic quality, the package works perfectly as a small display for the pencils during an artist's creation process.  It takes up less room than if the pencils were all lain out on the table side by side, so it can take up room at the table or desk next to the artist's composition without being an inconvenience.  Keeping the pencils together in this package also makes it much easier for the artist to access the specific color palette they provide, as opposed to if the artist chose to store them in a large box alongside many other pencils from many other packages and color palettes that will all end up bleeding into each other.