Gold Packaging Design · 2023
Moon and Tea Mid Autumn Gift Box Packaging
by Chenxiang Xi
- A' Design Award 2023 Gold Winner in Packaging Design
- Awarded April 15, 2023
- CLIENT: 5gN² Creative Design Studio
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 41,043
- Verification code 3482F25A5C · Verify this award
About Moon and Tea Mid Autumn Gift Box Packaging
Moon and Tea Mid Autumn is a gift box created for the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is traditionally celebrated in China in the eighth month of the lunar year. The box is made of natural materials such as bamboo, ceramics and wheat straw. It holds moon cakes with local colored rice and Pu-erh tea. Every part is designed for reuse. The body and the white porcelain cover plate become a tea tray, while the handle serves as a spoon. The inner box can be turned into a moon lantern, and the spherical part of the cover can be used as an incense burner.
This distinguished packaging design exemplifies a thoughtful synthesis of cultural heritage and contemporary design sensibility, positioning itself within the enduring tradition of festival gift presentation while employing thoroughly modern formal strategies. The work appears to engage with centuries-old customs surrounding autumnal celebration, wherein the exchange of mooncakes and fine tea carries profound significance as expressions of familial connection, seasonal awareness, and aesthetic refinement. The designer demonstrates remarkable sensitivity to material semiotics, selecting a palette of natural wood, pristine white, and restrained metallic accents that collectively communicate values of authenticity, purity, and understated luxury without recourse to ostentatious display. The embossed surface pattern merits particular attention for its sophisticated abstraction of traditional motifs into a coherent geometric vocabulary that suggests window lattices, lunar phases, and garden screens without literal reproduction, achieving a balance between cultural recognition and contemporary graphic invention. Technical accomplishment manifests throughout, from the precise registration of the relief pattern to the considered proportional relationships between container and contents, frame and panel, individual mooncakes and collective arrangement. The chromatic strategy demonstrates refined understanding of how color functions both symbolically and compositionally, with the quartet of translucent confections providing measured chromatic vitality against the predominantly achromatic packaging while suggesting the varied flavors and the diversity of the season's harvest. The vermillion seal operates as both authentication mark and compositional anchor, its warm intensity drawing the eye while establishing connection to traditional practices of marking precious objects. This packaging invites consideration of how contemporary design might honor tradition while speaking a visual language comprehensible to present audiences, and how the material culture of celebration continues evolving while maintaining essential symbolic functions.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The Mid-Autumn Festival is traditionally celebrated in China in the eighth month of the lunar year. The designers created a unique gift box for Vanke for this year's full-moon festival.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- 24.5cm x 8.5cm x 30cm
- Production Technology
- The entire packaging design and implementation strictly adheres to environmentally-friendly principles. Composed of natural materials like bamboo, ceramics, and wheat straw, the gift box boasts a sustainable construction. Each component of the packaging serves a distinct purpose, with the outermost layer functioning as a ceramic tea tray. This tray has undergone a slow-flow water treatment process, ensuring the gift box's longevity and promoting continuous use.
- Design Challenge
- In this project, we faced challenges in reimagining traditional packaging designs to enhance reusability and functionality. We needed to ensure material sustainability and environmental performance.
Difficulties arose in data collection and analysis, necessitating diverse research tools for accurate results. We tackled production obstacles and external factors, such as laws and technological advancements.
Utilizing existing resources, historical and social contexts, and cutting-edge technology, we successfully developed an innovative, eco-friendly packaging design. - Project Duration
- The project started in August 2021 in Shanghai and finished in October 2021 in Shanghai.
- Operation Flow
- Each element of the box is designed for reuse. The body and cover plate can be repurposed as a tea tray, while the handle doubles as a spoon. Additionally, the inner box can be transformed into a moon lantern, and the spherical structure of the cover can function as a censer. This versatile box seamlessly blends practicality with festivity.
- Research
- Our research explored an alternative approach to eco-friendly design, diverging from the prevalent focus on recyclable materials. We aimed to add value to packaging products, transforming them from single-use items with limited functionality to long-term, sustainable solutions. To achieve this, we conducted surveys and in-depth interviews to understand consumer perceptions and behaviors regarding packaging. Employing research tools like questionnaires and statistical analysis, we collected and examined data. Our findings revealed that consumers were more likely to reuse packaging when it offered added value beyond its initial purpose. This research holds the potential to reduce waste and encourage sustainable packaging design practices.
- Inspiration
- It has a distinctly Chinese feel, elegant and beautiful, with a bamboo box body and white porcelain tea plate. The box contains moon cakes with local colored rice and Pu-erh tea. When opened, the body of the box and the porcelain cover become a tea tray; the box doubles as a soft lamp while drinking tea and watching the moon.
Colors of Moon and Tea Mid Autumn Gift Box Packaging
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