Loose Tea Leaf Packaging

The product line I chose for this packaging project is loose tea leaf. I'd like to narrow down my focus to a specific type of Chinese green tea named DragonWell because it is the symbol of my hometown and I'm excited to bring something personal to the design. I conceptualize the product to signify peace, calm and delicacy since DragonWell is a pretty high-end tea product. In contrast to fermented Oolong or black tea, the idea way to truly experience the fine quality of DragonWell green tea is to put dried tea leaves into a clear glass teacup for brewing so that we can sea the tender leaves floating. 

Brewed GragonWell tea

The outer packaging will be a bigger square box. The inner packaging will consist of 9 square flat boxes, each (hypothetically) containing about 2-3 teaspoons of dried leaves so that every individual box is good for one glass teacup (about 10 oz of water). I'm thinking of combining traditional Chinese watercolor painting with modern Western design concept.

I went to the Metropolitan Museum for inspiration. Unfortunately, Chinese calligraphy and paintings are not on display. So I checked out Japanese and Korean artworks instead.

I also got more inspiration from the contemporary artwork exhibition when constructing my color palettes. 

Working progress:

• Logo & Business card: I really the texture and delicacy of Chinese seals so I worked with this concept for the logo. I named the product "Ming" (see the character below), which means superior tea in Ancient Chinese. 

Logo: Ming

Business card front

Business card back

• Outer box lid: I'd like to bring something personal to this project so I used a map of my hometown and manipulated the texture to make it more hand-made. For the final presentation, the lid will be printed on a transparent piece of paper so that we can see the smaller boxes inside of it.

Outer box packaging

• Inner box: I made some variations based on the map concept so it connects well with the outer box lid. The watercolor fill is intended to convey a sense of authenticity and delicacy. I'll split the graphic into 9 pieces so each small inner box will be a part of the map and come together like a puzzle piece.

  

  Inner box packaging

• Prototype

• Final packaging product
  
  
  
  

Tea Bag Packaging

Some neat tea bag packaging designs that I found:

This tea bag has really cute and warm color design. The leaf-shaped handle on top to lift the tea bag up is also a clever and useful design. 

The texture of the bag and the green "G" make it look so organic.

This is one of the most hilarious and clever design that I came across today. I'm really drawn to the idea of making the tea bag into someone who is "sitting" in your tea cup.

The concept is sort of similar to the one above, making the tea bag the shape of our t-shirts. The whole packaging looks so elegant with the tiny clothes rack.

I like the fact that the tea bag can be split into two independent parts. The bottom part looks great and complete on its own and the top part is doing a good job keeping the tea bag from slipping into the cup.

The tea bags look like candies, which is not a commonly used association (I believe...). But I really like the energy the color palettes adds to the packaging.

DUMBO -- NYC Neighborhood Branding

This group project intends to explore a neighborhood in NYC and brand this neighborhood identity using letter/image combination. The neighborhood that our group researched for is DUMBO, which stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. It is a neighborhood in Brooklyn, NYC and a premier artist district. 

• 7.17 Field research: taking photos and sketching ideas

  

  Manhattan Bridge

Manhattan Bridge: a different view

Brooklyn Bridge

Sketch: playing around with typography

Sketch: preliminary idea

• 7.18 Logo design: the bridges seem to be good graphic combinations with the word. We decided to focus on the Manhattan Bridge as the graphic representation of DUMBO since the Brooklyn Bridge is more often associated with the entire area of Brooklyn, rather than just DUMBO. 

A simplified graphic version of the Manhattan Bridge

Adding the text

Completing the bridge and adding a somehow ironic punchline 

Playing with color

Cleaning up the design

Integrating DUMBO as a part of the bridge

Final Version