Season the day

spice box set and shelving

Brief:

Design a package that can take on a secondary function after it serves its job as a gift box. The project is a take on Julia Christensen’s book “Big Box Reuse” which addresses the ways communities reuse big box buildings after they are decommissioned. The goal is to study and explore possible ways to reduce the waste consumers produce and design a resulting gift package that suggests a secondary use as a form of upcycling in material or symbolic value.

Approach:

Spices don’t often come in personalized sets with any extra packaging and are normally stored on shelves in the kitchen. By combining all three elements, Season The Day allows customers to personally select spices, while the packaging transforms into its second life of a shelf. It can be mounted to a wall or resting on a surface. I cut, stained and built the wood into a box and used a glowforge to engrave the acrylic, then painted inside the etching. I chose the vibrant teal acrylic backing to compliment the warm oranges and browns of this spice set. I wanted the brand to be quite simple and modern, so that the colorful spices could be included in the primary design rather than a secondary thought.

Results:

This packaging evolves from a sturdy spice storage container to a modern wooden shelf with two levels. This allows customers to reuse an item that would normally be thrown away, while also not needing to purchase something they can continue to store spices in. These spices have matching bottles and labeling, which incentivizes customers to continue their relationship with Season The Day and purchase more like it.