How To Create A Box Design In Illustrator – On the one hand, it contains and protects products and makes them easy to transport. On the other hand, it makes them more attractive and strengthens the visual identity of their brand.
Many companies that specialize in printing and packaging offer a variety of formats and structures. However, there are designs that require special measurements and materials for which standard formats are not suitable.
How To Create A Box Design In Illustrator
The template for a box is its two-dimensional technical drawing, the outline that allows the box to be assembled. A template consists of two parts:
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So how do you create a packaging template that works and is ready to send to a professional printer? We show you how to create a template for one of the most common types of boxes using Adobe Illustrator.
The template we are making is for a standard box made by cutting and folding a single sheet. It can be closed by joining its various parts together and has an adhesive tip. The glue dot is the only part that the printers will apply liquid glue to, and it keeps the structure solid.
First, open Adobe Illustrator. When you create a new document, you must specify the dimensions on the drawing surface. For now, just set them to 500 x 500mm; this changes when the drawing of the box is finished. Make sure the color mode is set to CMYK. It is important that all projects that will eventually be printed are set to Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (CMYK).
The dimensions of the finished box will be 80 x 80 x 120 mm. Start by selecting the rectangle tool from the toolbar. By clicking on the drawing surface, you can enter the dimensions of the first panel: 80 x 120 mm. When you create a classic box, it will consist of four pages, corresponding to the template’s four panels. All four side panels have the same dimensions, so you can create them all at once and place them next to each other (remember to enable the Snapping option under Settings).
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After creating the side panels, make the top and bottom flaps of the box. So go ahead and make these tabs, each measuring 80 x 80mm. Place the bottom tab below the first side panel starting from the left. Place the top tab above the third panel from the left.
Then draw the tuck tabs and dust tabs. The dust flaps are trapezoidal, while the insert tabs for the top and bottom panels have rounded corners (this makes the drawer easier to open). By locking the flaps together, it becomes possible to assemble and close the box completely.
The final step is to draw the glue dot to which the glue tip will be applied. This is located on the outside of the first panel from the left. The glue tab is crucial for the solidity of the box structure. All tabs have one side that is the same dimension as the panel they are attached to, while the other side can be any dimension.
Now that the structure is complete, create the cut and fold lines. The cutter is the tool used to cut the sheet along the cutting lines. The folded line serves to mark where the printer will apply pressure (using a special machine) to help fold the box’s panels and tabs.
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It is important that the nozzle line and crease line are on separate layers, this will help when exporting the final file.
Once you’ve created the matrix layer, select all panels and tabs, copy everything, and open the Pathfinder panel. Click the Merge button to create the hole line that will be used to cut out the box.
To create the fold line, create a new layer and use the layer with the original elements (Layer 1) as a guide. Create dashed lines where the panels and tabs meet, and therefore where the box will fold.
Custom boxes that have no information on them are a rarity. Even the most minimalist designs have at least the logo and some information about the contents of the packaging.
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Now all that remains is to fill the template with colors, decoration, patterns and useful information. All these elements largely depend on the identity of the brand, the type of product and the amount of information to be added.
It is very important that useful information and letters are not placed on the punch or fold lines as this can make it difficult to read. Otherwise, let your creativity flow!
Before exporting the file, resize the artboard. This will enable the printers to calculate the size of the sheets to be cut and to optimize production.
To do so, select the artboard tool from the toolbar and click on the matrix layer. Once you have created the new drawing surface, you can delete the old one with dimensions of 500 x 500 mm.
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The template is now ready and you just need to export the file. There are two ways to do this, both are suitable for sending the file to printers/packaging manufacturers.
Method 1: export the hole and fold line files to PDF so that only the layer to be exported is visible. This way you generate two files that you can call Die Cut lines and Creasing lines.
Method 2: Send the .ai (Adobe Illustrator) file directly to the printer. To do so, make sure you’ve removed all layers and elements not needed for production and save the file in a previous version of the software.
About the Author Marco Minzoni Marco Minzoni is a creatively organized graphic designer with a passion for visual communication systems. He specializes in…