product development

developed & designed
Quick Sticker Kit Series

paper puppets from Quick Sticker Kit

Pictured Above: Animal Puppets Kit

paper-based puppets

challenges for quick sticker kits:

  • Be true to Peaceable Kingdom's mission statement — Do Good and Be Good. Create earth-friendly, paper-based products that are fun and engage children's imaginations.
  • Design age-appropriate products
  • Steadily introduce and develop unique paper-based products that stand out from competitors
  • Package is narrow — only 3.8” wide
  • Solutions to keep printing costs down because paper weight and coatings significantly effect production costs
    1. Paper engineer solutions with most-used paper weights: reprints can be grouped for volume discounts on paper
    2. Limit ”special effect“ coatings: glitter, glow and foil can be expensive

company: Peaceable Kingdom Press

software: Ps, Ai

my role for the Quick Sticker series:

  • Worked closely with top brass
    1. President and Creative Director: presented and/or developed new ideas for future Quick Sticker projects
    2. Production Manager: spec sheet with paper weight, special paper coatings, and dielines for a printer-made white dummy
  • Paper engineering
  • Guided illustrators interms of project scope and art needed
  • Photoshopped art for product components, sticker sheets, activity components and product images on box
  • Designed all product components, sticker sheets and box

Directing the Illustrator

outline the scope of the project

chaperon advertorials

Provide guidance but don't hinder creativity or style.

project start: contact the illustrator with project overview including the quantity of new art needed and important concepts to keep in mind when creating the puppet's characters.

  • Use a bright palette
  • Puppets are for children aged 4+
  • Characters are gender neutral — the child will determine the character and gender of the puppet with sticker play
  • Create characters within the general dielines or the puppets won't fit in the narrow package
  • To heighten character and puppet believability — dog and rabbit bodies hang down, blocking the puppeteers arm from view while the snake body wraps around the puppeteers arm

Paper Engineering

dieline parameters

chaperon advertorials
preliminary dielines: shows general dielines and glue spots for rabbit puppet

challenge: How to recreate the realism, believability and magic of traditional 3-dimensional puppets from flat paper? In addition, the package is only 3.8” wide!

  • Strategically placed glue spots coupled with an accordian fold create a simple pocket for a small hand and a moveable mouth
  • Ears are creased to flop forward for the rabbit and double creased to project out and down for the dog
  • Eyes and noses fold up, teeth and tongues fold down into a different plane from the face

Additional Considerations

print production

chaperon advertorials
printer-ready art: shows actual art in final dielines

  • Work in correct color-calibrated profile
  • Provide printer with folded color dummy for snake and dog (otherwise they won't fit in the narrow box)

The Whole Monty — More Quick Sticker Kits I Developed

all quick sticker kits contain 2 sticker sheets and components to build or decorate (not all products shown)

quick sticker kits: glow in the dark space mobile and racecars
this row features award winners! of the Parents Choice® Fun Stuff™ Awards 2010 and 2011
quick sticker kits: glow in the dark space mobile and racecars
all quick sticker kits include some level of paper engineering in the development
quick sticker kits: glow in the dark space mobile and racecars
easily construct and decorate a mobile or build a pirate ship