Summary:
Intricate, uniquely designed matchbooks with a high-level concept of the words fire or match were the final project for my digital illustration class. The intricacy of this project would be graded on detailing, complexity, precision, and multiple other factors. To be sure there were no two designs my classmates and I had to share our ideas with everyone. Once we all decided and had no duplicates, we began our work. For this project the professor let us decide our grade by how much effort we wanted to put into it. We had the rubric for how to reach an A,B or a C. I always strive for an A. To receive an A the matchbooks had to have at least two extra elements and there needed to be five matchbooks in total.
Concept:
Final designs from Illustrator
In the beginning, my concepts were different but then I got stuck on the idea of two jack-in-the-boxes fighting each other. I had this crazy thought from seeing how the matchbook “springs” open and wanted to focus on the word match instead of fire. I thought of the characters I wanted to fight, and a king and joker never left my mind. I thought of these two because they seemed funny in my mind, and I wanted to see them brought to life. I wanted the fight to be recognizable and I chose to have the king and joker in a boxing ring. The other atmospheres I thought were street fighting, and food fighting then determined the boxing ring would be the best option.
Process:
20 images for visual research
The first part of this project was finding visual research. I searched illustrative matchbook designs and was surprised to see the search showing the matchbook boxes instead of the flip matchbooks I would be using. After narrowing the search, I found some great examples of seriously designed ones, funny ones, and uniquely made ones. I liked these designs because they helped me visualize how big my matchbook would be and how the little details were important.
30 sketches
When the visual research was complete, I sketched the matchbook size and went over the lines with Sharpie. I used a Sharpie to be able to erase and sketch with ease. Having the matchbook template complete I drew different twenty different layouts for how I wanted the inside and outside of the matchbook to look. Halfway through drawing the sketches, I was running out of ideas and different ways to position my characters.
To help kickstart the creative flow of my designs I asked my mom what she thought about when I said the words joker and king. My mom started naming things she associated with each and then after a couple of minutes, I told her my concept. When my mom knew the concept, she helped me decide on some more fun and unique layouts. With her help, I was able to take a break from overthinking and only pay attention to what people would recognize.
Sketches on paper and then I used the minus front mode from the pathfinder tool in Adobe Illustrator to cut out the holes.
Having all twenty sketches finished I decided on aspects from different sketches to have in my final designed matchbook. When I had a solid idea for how to layout the matchbook, I took images of my sketches and placed them into Illustrator. To do this I used the Illustrator tablet version and then used the pen tool for an easy trace and fill process. I used the tablet version of Illustrator because this project was a tiny construction, and I did not want to be overcome with details from working on a computer. With the tablet version of Illustrator, I could personally draw all the details and be sure everything had a purpose.
Work in progress on the characters before critique
Work in Progress:
During the work in progress
My classmates and I only had one work in progress for this project. In the progress, I felt my designs were lacking compared to other classmates. After the progress, I immediately started working harder and came up with a brilliant idea for how to make my matches even more unique. This unique idea was using a spring to make the matchbook pop open but unfortunately, with the quick turnaround for the final design, this idea was unsuccessful. Luckily for me, I had a backup idea that worked out flawlessly. This idea was moving the characters themselves.
Tunnel designed in Illustrator. The dashed lines is where I would cut and then the solid lines is where I would score the yardstick to create a fold. Had to recolor because the printer made the floor look purple.
Printed out squares for the characters to attach and move through the tunnel. Finished inside of matchbook with a tunnel glued on.
For moving the characters, I constructed a tunnel-like system on the bend of the matchbook. For this system, I used square cardstock to attach the bottoms of the characters, and this allowed the characters to smoothly glide through the tunnel. For my characters, I used the Cricut for a smooth edge and precise cuts.
Finalizing the designs of the characters
Working on the ring design and adding photo flares around the matches
Final designed inside of the matchbooks
Working on back of the matchbooks and added "judges" to the bottom flap.
Added a Knight and stars to the back of the matchbooks
Trial and Error:
When I first tried to construct the matchbook after the work in progress the printers ink was smearing off and made the matchbooks look terrible. For the final designed matchbooks I used another printer and was successful in the ink not smearing.
To make the ring look more realistic I used string to create the appearance of the boxing ring ropes. With the string, it allowed for the characters to not bend and move outside of the tunnel.
To create a smooth bend I scored the inside of the matchbooks. I first cut them out and then placed them back into the rectangle to follow the dotted lines on the margins of the rectangle.
I placed the final designed matchbooks under my computer when finished scoring to allow the cardstock to hold the shape I needed. This allowed for the matchbooks to be easily opened and closed.
When I first tried to use the Cricut to cut out the characters I realized the springs connecting the characters to the square was too flimsy. To fix this problem I expanded the springs in Illustrator and used the direct selection tool to make the springs even. For more reinforcement I copied and pasted the new spring and added an irregular shape to be able to glue on the back of the characters for more durability.
On the matches themselves, I used Adobe Illustrator to create a scoreboard and then printed it on cardstock to place on the matches. Instead of putting a square on the matches I used an X-Aacto knife to cut out the size of the matches on the cardstock and then glued everything together.
Extra elements explained:
Video showing the whole matchbook design and the characters moving abilities.
The first two extra elements were the characters cut out and their ability to move. The third and forth elements were the designs on the matches instead of them being plain and the added string for the boxing ring. I also cut out more of my characters to make a keepsake magnet for friends and family.
What I Learned:
I learned asking people who do not know the objectives of a project will lead to great and new ideas I would have never thought of. I also learned having a minor panic attack is okay because afterward everything goes up and starts working out for the better.
