USC STEAM 2025: Packaging and Instructions

Problem

EAFab wanted to develop a building-brick set of their signature LMF to be used as a client giveaway. After they explored options with major manufacturers like LEGO, they found that the quoted costs were far beyond their budget. To stay within scope, they aim to design a model that can be printed and manufactured entirely in-house using their 3D printer. Our team’s prompt from EAFab was to design and create a branded box and instruction manual for the LMF building bricks set to enhance presentation and usability.

Process

The first thing we did was figure out what our individual strengths and weaknesses were, and divided the work up based on that. One of us took on designing the box design as well as the instructions cover, and the other worked on developing the instructions manual, and where we were going to get all the materials for building a physical box.

For the box design, the first thing needed was inspiration. The designs found online that resonated with us were the Star Wars LEGO sets. At first, Canva was used to try to create the box covers, but it was quickly found that if used, the box would come out looking sloppy and unprofessional. Recognizing that a skill of mine (Jonah) was editing images in the app on my iPad called Procreate. I had used it many times before to tweak images and add my own designs in a neat way. The only thing missing now was a base image that I could start my work on. For that, I turned to ChatGPT.

In this project, ChatGPT was not a solution; it was a tool, just like Google, Procreate, or any other app. I would have it generate for me a very basic concept of a furnace LEGO set, and then hours were spent editing that and adding in all of the aspects needed to create the final design. The original AI-generated image is provided to the right.

Throughout the process, the design had to be tweaked many times, adjusting colors, logos, the placement of some of the objects, and so on. The same design process was used for the instructions cover.

For the instructions manual, I (Camryn) got inspiration from some of LEGO’s instruction manuals since they are very easy to follow. After looking at some examples from LEGO’s instructions, I created a template on Google Slides and was able to put pictures of each brick and models of where the piece was going, thanks to the group that was working on designing the physical set. I also did some research on the best way to produce a physical box. I first looked on Amazon for all the basic things we would need to put the box together at the lowest price. This included a properly sized box, bags to hold the bricks, and sticker paper to print our design on. The other option I looked into was finding a reliable website that would print the design on the box. During the project, we worked separately while giving and getting feedback from each other and our mentors. This led us to create a bunch of different designs to meet what EAFab envisioned for the box design and instructions.

Lastly, at the end, we came together to assemble the box, which included putting the finished box design onto the box, printing the instructions manual and putting it in the box, and bagging the bricks and putting them into the box to make a sample of what the box would look like if you were receiving it as a client.

Limitations

The materials used to create the box and instructions used for the presentation were only what we had at hand and what we could order from Amazon, because they would ship fast. We created an alternative option for EAFab to be able to order custom-made boxes from a website we had researched, but we were unsure if the product would arrive in time for the presentation. This lack of professional-grade materials made it challenging to build a prototype that would resemble the design we had created on paper. Specifically, when printing our design on sticker paper for the prototype we created for the presentation, the printer we used wasn’t as high-quality as we wanted, and therefore the design came out differently than what we had created digitally. Another limitation was the fact that neither of us had taken a graphic design

class, which made it challenging to create a design of the box and the cover of the

instruction manual from scratch. Despite this limitation, we had no lack of creativity and

vision with the project, but we did not always have the technical skills to create the ideas we envisioned.

What We Learned

No matter how well you think you have made a design, it can always be improved in some way. We also learned that success is in the details; the more successful you are based on how well you do the little things.

Final Solution

In addition to the box design and instruction manual, our group also had to create a physical box to replicate what EAFab would be giving some of its clients. The route we decided to take to create a physical product was to order a box from Amazon that had the dimensions we were looking for and to print out sticker paper with the box design on it to stick on the box. Inside the box, we put the printed instructions manual as well as the bricks, which were created by one of the other groups, that were put into specific bags to make the building process easier.

                  Front of the box design Back of the box design

Alternatives

One alternative to our project was instead of ordering plain boxes

from Amazon and using sticker paper to put our design on it, EAFab would order

custom-made boxes from Packola.com, a website that would print our design on the

box. Although this would be more costly, it would save them time because they wouldn’t

have to assemble the boxes themselves. Also, depending on the printer used, printing

the box design on the sticker paper could cause the design to be darker and lower

quality. The website we found is used by other companies and would have a

higher-quality print on it, making it look more professional.

USC STEAM Students who worked on this portion of the project: Camryn Friday and Jonah Selig