XO Create! Stretches Minds and Setup Box Limits with ThinkCube

MetaMemes LLC was founded last year to introduce a unique innovation tool to the business world. The husband and wife team of Kes and Sue Sampanthar looked for a design company to transform Kes's ThinkCube concept from words, cards, and booklets into a fully realized "innovation workstation."

The Sampanthars found XO Create!, a firm specializing in premium branding and packaging innovations in Alpharetta, GA, and the Sampanthars let XO Create! take the reins. In the end, XO Create! developed and designed the entire product-every illustration, every card, divider cards, notepads, the instruction booklet, the quick start guide, the structure, and the setup box wrap.

The Sampanthars wanted to provide a product that would not only be of service to its consumers but also give a "Wow" upon first glance. XO Create! quickly expanded the design objectives to anticipate future retail possibilities. "We realized that there might be some potential for the product we hadn't thought of before," Sue Sampanthar remembers.

An engaging design

The ThinkCube is designed to engage any person or team needing a nudge in the creativity realm into thinking with a process. The structure and packaging are meant to encourage users to keep the ThinkCube out on their desk or in their work areas. "It is a cube, but it is also expandable," says Laura Donnelly, strategy director at XO Create!. "MetaMemes wanted to come up with something as creatively different as possible." Of course, it would be important to have creative packaging for a creativity tool.

The packaging is designed to break category; after all, it would have been much easier to just put it in a standard setup box. The unique tilted setup box has four drawers stocked with over 200 Idea, Word, and Mutate cards, as well as instruction booklets. (To try it out with real samples from the product, go to www.metamemes.com, also designed by XO Create!.)

In order to achieve the objectives set forth by the client to be both high-end and unique, the package not only had to be designed for visual appeal but it needed to have an element that is not commonly found on the shelf. Knowing that the product was going to be named ThinkCube, a square shape was a constraint, but the orientation was not.

Outside and inside the box

"Wow, a box that sits on an axis-how are we going to produce that?" asked Kes Sampanthar when presented with the design comp. Though the client was fully on board with the innovative direction, design and production issues had to be brought forth and dealt with one at a time. Jim Stringer, creative director for XO Create!, knew that the weight of the cards in the drawers would need to balance the container for stability. One idea was to have a separate base component for the box to sit in, but the extra expense was prohibitive to the client.

MetaMemes and XO Create! wanted the ThinkCube "workstation" to be attractive enough and functional enough so that users would want to keep it "out" in their offices.

Sue Sampanthar says the collaboration with XO Create! was a productive iterative process where function drove the structure. "The unique packaging was the last piece of the puzzle," says Sue. XO Create! also designed a wraparound sleeve for the 8" x 8" box to better explain the product to shoppers in retail environments down the road.

MetaMemes also wanted to make sure their introduction to the market conveyed high quality, both to entice new users and to encourage frequent use. With a limited budget for this lid-and-drawer product, it became clear that setup boxes were the only way to go. This meant XO Create! had to collaborate with a vendor that was accustomed to challenges and was willing to tweak their production line for this product. Atlanta Packaging Specialties provided the setup box line, and all the components were printed at Standard Press, both in Atlanta.

XO Create! designed the ThinkCube logo and the graphic representations of the Idea, Word, and Mutate categories to be meaningful and attractive. "Once we had those icons set for the cards, then what colors would complement them was natural," Donnelly explains. Sue Sampanthar agrees: "There are bright colors, but at the same time, it's quality."