Harry Potter, Forbidden Forest advent calendar.

Product designer - Lead structural designer. November 2017 - June 2020.

My role & responsibilities.

Market research, ideation, prototyping, hi-fi mock-ups, usability research, iterating on designs.

The problem.

The advent market has become increasingly competitive. We need a radical, new concept to maintain our place as market leader - Create something completely new and wow!

The goal.

Create a market first concept, that disrupts the market and excites customers.

The customer.

Marks & Spencer is a high-end supermarket chain. They offer a wide variety of goods, ranging from homewares to fruit and veg. Their customers typically range from 25-65.

Market research.

Initial research.

The advent will be given a mid to high price point, at approx £15 - with this in mind a carton board option would be preferred compared to that of a rigid board option.

Current market trends in the carton board market tend to stick to the basic square box with perforated advent doors on the front. These tend to sit at home and look rather tatty for the whole of December - How can we create more of a centre piece that doesn’t look tatty, but is a centre piece creating the ‘wow’ factor?

Empathy map.

Pain points.

Advent should look nice in the home.
Advent should represent good value for money.
Re-usability - consumers conscious of waste.

Persona.

Starting the design.

Initial sketches.

An initial ideation session, sketching a range of ideas, which the customer has decided to pursue the ‘triangular’ advent calendar option.

Progressing on from the initial sketches, CAD drawings were created to start the design process of the first physical mock up.

A white backed folding box board was chosen to cut the physical sample helping the carton keep its physical shape, and feel more premium in hand.

First physical advent option complete, samples sent to customer to review with initial feedback coming back:

“We love the concept, however the equilateral shape takes up too much shelf space in store - can we make the base shorter and the apex of the triangle higher?”

“The negative space inside the triangle seems too empty, can we do anything to combat this?”

Additional sketches to address feedback and customer comments - Base made smaller and sides taller meaning that the advent doors are now only located on the sides. A new RPET inner carton to combat the negative space within the triangle that comprises of an inner cardboard fitment to create a 3D scene and centre piece.

A new physical sample created and samples sent to the customer. New feedback and customer comments:

“We absolutely love the shape and the inner 3D scene!”

“We will further the development with creation of inner vac form trays to hold the chocolates, we then need to determine the placement and strength of the advent doors on the carton”

Refining the design.

Vac form trays to hold the chocolates were created, meaning that the advent doors need refining to fit the chocolates, taking into consideration the strength of the perforations on the doors - they need to be strong enough to not burst during the erection and packing of the advent, but easy enough to open for the consumer. The doors need to open nicely so that they can be shut again to help maintain that centre piece requirement of the pack.

New samples sent to the customer to transit trial the carton, with new feedback and customer comments -

“perfect transit trial, no movement of chocolate, advent doors with 0.8mm perforations work perfectly”

“CAD drawings required to create artwork for mass production”

CAD drawings - development.

The above development of the 3D cardboard scene that sits inside the RPET fitment. The initial design had only two layers of trees, but progressed to have four with the additional of the side folding layer.

The final two options both progressed to mass production - the bottom left was used for an ‘Enchanted Forest’ version, and the bottom right used for the “Harry Potter Forbidden Forest’

The above development of the outer triangle advent didn’t have to go through too many iterations. The bottom right is the final design which isn’t too dissimilar to the original. The final design incorporated the taller sides and shorter base, finalised advent doors that passed a transit trial and additional inner flaps to increase the strength of the structure.

This final design was mass produced and used for both the “Enchanted Forest” and “Harry Potter Forbidden Forest” advents.

Final designs.

The Enchanted Forest design, incorporated a densely packed forest scene, with deer imagery printed onto the RPET inner. The tapered nature of the triangular design means that the scene will not move about.

The brief here was to create a completely new ‘wow’ advent that has never been seen before - The fact that this pack was shortlisted for the ‘UK Packaging Awards 2019 - Carton board pack of the year’ indicates that the brief wasn’t just met but exceeded.

Due to the success of the Enchanted Forest Advent, a Harry Potter version was then ordered by the customer.

The Harry Potter, Forbidden Forest advent, was the centre piece for an entire range of Harry Potter themed goodies that were available from Marks & Spencer for the festive period. It proved to be so popular that it sold out everywhere and even made the national news!

Harry Potter, Forbidden Forest advent calendar.

Product designer - Lead structural designer. November 2017 - June 2020.

My role & responsibilities.

Market research, ideation, prototyping, hi-fi mock-ups, usability research, iterating on designs.

The problem.

The advent market has become increasingly competitive. We need a radical, new concept to maintain our place as market leader - Create something completely new and wow!

The goal.

Create a market first concept, that disrupts the market and excites customers.

The customer.

Marks & Spencer is a high-end supermarket chain. They offer a wide variety of goods, ranging from homewares to fruit and veg. Their customers typically range from 25-65.

Market research.

Initial research.

The advent will be given a mid to high price point, at approx £15 - with this in mind a carton board option would be preferred compared to that of a rigid board option.

Empathy map.

Pain points.

Advent should look nice in the home.

Advent should represent good value for money.

Re-usability - consumers conscious of waste.

Persona.

Starting the design.

Initial sketches.

An initial ideation session, sketching a range of ideas, which the customer has decided to pursue the ‘triangular’ advent calendar option.

Progressing on from the initial sketches, CAD drawings were created to start the design process of the first physical mock up.

A white backed folding box board was chosen to cut the physical sample helping the carton keep its physical shape, and feel more premium in hand.

First physical advent option complete, samples sent to customer to review with initial feedback coming back:

“We love the concept, however the equilateral shape takes up too much shelf space in store - can we make the base shorter and the apex of the triangle higher?”

“The negative space inside the triangle seems too empty, can we do anything to combat this?”

A new physical sample created and samples sent to the customer. New feedback and customer comments:

“We absolutely love the shape and the inner 3D scene!”

“We will further the development with creation of inner vac form trays to hold the chocolates, we then need to determine the placement and strength of the advent doors on the carton”

Refining the design.

New samples sent to the customer to transit trial the carton, with new feedback and customer comments -

“perfect transit trial, no movement of chocolate, advent doors with 0.8mm perforations work perfectly”

“CAD drawings required to create artwork for mass production”

CAD drawings - development.

The above development of the 3D cardboard scene that sits inside the RPET fitment. The initial design had only two layers of trees, but progressed to have four with the additional of the side folding layer.

The final two options both progressed to mass production - the bottom left was used for an ‘Enchanted Forest’ version, and the bottom right used for the “Harry Potter Forbidden Forest’

This final design was mass produced and used for both the “Enchanted Forest” and “Harry Potter Forbidden Forest” advents.

Final designs.

The Enchanted Forest design, incorporated a densely packed forest scene, with deer imagery printed onto the RPET inner. The tapered nature of the triangular design means that the scene will not move about.

The brief here was to create a completely new ‘wow’ advent that has never been seen before - The fact that this pack was shortlisted for the ‘UK Packaging Awards 2019 - Carton board pack of the year’ indicates that the brief wasn’t just met but exceeded.

Due to the success of the Enchanted Forest Advent, a Harry Potter version was then ordered by the customer.

The Harry Potter, Forbidden Forest advent, was the centre piece for an entire range of Harry Potter themed goodies that were available from Marks & Spencer for the festive period. It proved to be so popular that it sold out everywhere and even made the national news!

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