Bronze Giftware Design · 2026
Minimo Gift Box
by Rilind Hoxha
- A' Design Award 2026 Bronze Winner in Giftware Design
- Awarded April 15, 2026
- CLIENT: Why Agency
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 9,856
- Verification code 97BF87FDC2 · Verify this award
About Minimo Gift Box
The Minimo by Smaragd 1969 is a structured box made from ecological paper and other sustainable materials, intended for repeated use. The box contains four jewelry pieces, each individually packaged and placed in separate compartments. The packaging is designed to be recyclable and reusable, aiming to reduce environmental impact. The compartmental layout allows controlled access to each item while maintaining protection and a sequential unboxing process.
Rilind Hoxha's Minimo Gift Box exemplifies contemporary packaging design's embrace of hand-drawn aesthetic sensibilities that communicate authenticity, approachability, and joyful simplicity in an era where consumers increasingly value human touch and artisanal character even within commercial contexts. This container represents a sophisticated negotiation between functional product design and surface decoration as meaningful communication, wherein the illustrated motifs transform utilitarian packaging into an integral component of the gift-giving experience rather than mere protective enclosure to be discarded upon opening. The design achieves notable compositional balance through its distribution of varied organic forms across the visible surfaces, the larger sweeping curves of the rainbow-like arcs and ribbon forms establishing major compositional rhythms while smaller punctuating elements including the sun spiral, bee figure, and flower shapes create secondary focal points that guide the eye in pleasurable meandering across the decorated field without hierarchical domination or visual monotony. Chromatic sophistication emerges through the restrained palette that maximizes impact through selective deployment rather than chromatic abundance, the warm orange and golden yellow tones creating solar associations and emotional warmth while the cool lavender passages provide necessary chromatic relief and visual variety, all unified by the generous white ground that functions not as absence but as active compositional participant allowing individual motifs spatial breathing room and preventing visual congestion. The hand-drawn quality of the illustration suggests several possible interpretive frameworks: it may reference childhood's uninhibited creativity and the universal human impulse toward mark-making and decorative play, it potentially evokes folk art traditions and vernacular decoration that privilege directness over academic refinement, or it might participate in contemporary design movements that resist digital perfection in favor of human imperfection's warmth and authenticity. Thematically, the imagery celebrates natural world delights through its vocabulary of flowers, sunshine, bees, and rainbow arcs, creating associations with spring renewal, garden abundance, and outdoor joy that frame whatever gift resides within as partaking in nature's generosity and life's simple pleasures. The bee motif carries particular symbolic weight as representation of industriousness, community, natural sweetness, and environmental stewardship, while the sun spiral evokes warmth, energy, illumination, and life-giving force across countless cultural traditions. The overall design strategy demonstrates sophisticated understanding of packaging's dual function as both physical container and emotional amplifier, recognizing that gift presentation extends and enriches the giving gesture itself, transforming ordinary transaction into meaningful ritual. One might observe how this design invites contemplation of how contemporary commercial culture increasingly values design sensibilities once associated primarily with fine craft and limited production, asking viewers to consider what aesthetic choices communicate about values, identity, and relationship between maker, giver, and recipient in our material culture.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Minimo by Smaragd 1969 is a structured box made from ecological paper and sustainable materials, designed for repeated use. It contains four individually packaged jewelry pieces, each secured in separate compartments. Packaging is recyclable and reusable, reducing environmental impact. The box design allows for controlled access to each compartment, maintaining the element of surprise while keeping the items protected.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- 164 mm x 164 mm x 42 mm , UV laminated & ecologically colored recycled paper.
- Tags
- Jewelry, Gifts, Luxury, Packaging, Branding, Marketing, Retail Design, Product Design
- Production Technology
- Sketched and Produced in Adobe Illustrator. Print execution done by hand.
- Design Challenge
- The hardest part was what the theme of the gift box was gonna be.
In the end, we opted for making the box design to have motifs inspired by the jewelry which is included in the boxes themselves.
The second hardest part was creating an unique blueprint for the box, which was largely assisted by the production facility. - Project Duration
- The project was initiated in the beginning of 2025, and an initial prototype was released in limited quantities. The final presented version was produced in the summer of 2025, and released in July of 2025. Production was primarily in Why Agency offices, while execution was done by AJ-Graf Matbaa in Skopje. The product was available for sale online and physically in the Smaragd stores in Skopje.
- Operation Flow
- The front part is opened, which contains two compartments, one with a piece of jewelry, and one with special merchandise.
- Research
- The research was mostly done online with some physical inspiration from vintage advent boxes found on flea markets.
- Inspiration
- The gift box takes inspiration from vintage children's gift boxes, incorporating a classic dual compartment structure that has the main gift and the complimentary merchandise. The main piece is usually jewelry, and the secondary pieces are usually coloring books and pencils, accompanied by a sticker sheet.
- Image Credits
- Semi Alili