MINT Shipping Box

Like I’ve said, it seems ridiculous to create packaging that can last for years if it only needs to live for a week. I undertook the challenge to create an everything-considered package made from used materials and zero plastic to minimize my environmental impact.

However, I also wanted to create something special and unique, that would elevate the shirt’s value. Perhaps I could even throw in an element of surprise.

First off, I needed to make a box. Something compact that used an efficient amount of materials, but also had enough structural integrity that it could be shipped around the world. I settled on a shape that was 6” square, and 1.5” thick, and I’ll admit, it took a few hours to figure out how to fold a shirt into a perfect square with the graphic centered.

To reuse cardboard, I sought to collect cardboard that would be consistent in size, so the box die I would create efficiently uses surface area and existing folds. While indulging in one of the many excellent local microbrews Vermont has to offer, I pondered what type of boxes I could collect.

Of course! The 12-pack beer box!

I built the box die shape in Illustrator, then tweaked measurements through a few prototypes, compensated tolerances based on material thickness, and created a final stencil out of paperboard.

The die I created yields two shirt boxes for every 12-pack box. 

And so I drank up, and began to collect…

Next up: So many boxes… Trace, cut, score, fold, assemble, inspect, repeat.