Time Capsule — Part 2. The box.
This week we were given a task to build a box for our object for time capsule from the previous week. While I was gathering objects last week, I got an idea in mind that since they are all connected by one topic — my passion for baking, why not make a “cake box”. But not a regular cake box where you put the cake inside, but a box that would actually look like a cake!
This is how it looks:
Now, I will explain the process.
Ideation and brainstorming
Since I already had an idea in mind of what I would like to do, I started brainstorming the ways of executing an idea. What tools would I need? Do I have all the materials? Would it be digital 3D model or a real life model?
I started by sketching out some ideas. This time I used a new tool for me, I used an app on IPad called “Sketchbook”. This is the first time I made digital sketches and I enjoyed the process. I don’t have the stylus yet, so I couldn’t create smaller details, but in general my experience was pleasant and it gets the job done. Here are my sketches:
At first, I thought that I would create a round cake with two tiers (on the left), because this is the more standard cake shape that is widely recognized. But then I thought that it would probably be difficult to fit rolling pin and the recipe book in the round shape. So I immediately switched to the square or rectangular shapes and realized that it should be easier to execute if I find some boxes and stack them on top of each other (sketch on the right).
Execution
Since I did not have any boxes at home, I had to go to the basement and go through neighbors’ boxes in trash area. This was the first time I was doing something like that but I managed to find perfectly sized boxes!
Then I started ideating options of how I could make them look like cake tiers and how I would separate my objects in each of the boxes. And this is what I did: I put a rolling pin and the recipe book in the box on the bottom symbolizing older times (books and rolling pins have been on this planet for a while), then Star Wars silicon mat on the second tier (70s-80s mass culture) and then Golden Snitch and “Squid game” shaped cookie cutters on the top tier, symbolizing 2000s, so closer to this date.
Then I wanted to wrap each tier in while wrapping paper and used some old tissues for gift bags, it didn’t cover the text on the boxes fully but since I was planning on decorating “the cake”, it was fine with me.
Then I wanted to make some decorations using some colorful paper. My idea was to decorate it with strawberries because those are my favorite type of decor for cakes! It would look like Fresier cake
However, I did not have any red paper, so I had to use pink. I started cutting strawberries of different sizes: smaller for the top tier and bigger for the lower tier. Then, I sticked them to the boxes and added some black dots to make them look more like strawberries, rather than petals.
After that, I stacked the decorated boxes on top of each other and added some green on top.
I still felt like something was missing on top, so I made a little topper with a note, usually it’s “Happy Birthday” or “Congratulations” but I wrote:
And tadaaa, it was done! Here are some other angles:
Reflection
During this week’s task I was thinking of what guest speaker Kathleen Bryan mentioned last week: Pick the tool that best fits the task. Not the task that best fits the tool. That is why my choice for boxes was obvious. I could have done a 3D model which would, of course, take me a longer time but since I had all the tools available for me that fit the task perfectly, I decided to use them!
Design process is a process of constant brainstorming, executing, iteration, refining and it is a cycle, so I pretty sure there could be something that I may change while I will be working on the part 3 of the project.
