experimental package design

This project focused on the designing and packaging of an object of choice. I chose tea bags because I feel like they are usually packaged in a very standard way and usually are either not built for portability or wasteful in its packaging. When gathering visual research, I noticed most tea brands come in a box of similar size with very relatable aesthetic choices. Most were bright, color blocked, and incorporated an image of the plant the tea is made of. I wanted to create a tea bag system that individually packaged the tea bags and also held a function besides just being thrown away once opened. My design solution was a triangle based pyramid form that contained a triangular shaped tea bag that could be opened and used as a “self-steeping” mug cover. The form when opened is a triangle and covers most tea mugs. Not only is this design solution more visually interesting, but it serves a function and eliminates a lot of unnecessary packaging. The organic fluid illustration on the cover of the tea bags was influenced from the shape of black tea leaves. I wanted to break away from the standards of tea packaging, so that is why I chose to make a pentagonal hinged system that allows the consumer to buy a multipack or buy individually. The use of black ink was also to break away from the overly saturated colors found in most tea packaging and to directly correlate to the black tea the covers contain.