UNBOXD - Reimagining the Creative Portfolio
The D&AD New Blood Awards "Make Your Mark" brief provided a compelling opportunity to express my individual creative voice, blending purpose-driven storytelling with a strong visual strategy. My personal submission, "UNBOXD," aimed to disrupt the conventional digital portfolio by reintroducing a tactile, sensory experience into creative recruitment. This project was a testament to how in-depth research into industry pain points and human psychology can lead to truly innovative design solutions.
D&AD Make Your Mark
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5 min
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Apr 30, 2025
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The Brief & Problem: Battling Digital Burnout
The core problem identified was the pervasive "digital burnout" experienced by creative directors during recruitment. Faced with "endless scrolling" through countless digital portfolios, they often found these experiences lacking "soul" and consequently "forget 70% of digital portfolios". This insight highlighted a critical gap: the digital medium, while efficient, was failing to foster memorable and emotionally resonant connections in the hiring process.
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Research Deep Dive: Validating a Tactile Solution
My research process was driven by a need to validate the hypothesis that a physical, tactile portfolio could offer a superior alternative, and to understand the practicalities of its implementation:
Industry Problem Validation: Initial desktop research explored broader trends in digital fatigue and the psychological impact of screen-heavy work environments (Turkle, 2011; Millennial Media, 2023). This contextualized the problem of digital burnout beyond just portfolios, suggesting a wider industry need for more engaging, non-digital interactions.
Qualitative Industry Interviews: To gather actionable feedback and validate the concept's industry relevance, I conducted two pivotal interviews with creative directors:
Interview with Vidit, Founder and Creative Director of Witchcraft Studio: The discussion focused on seeking validation for the UNBOXD tactile portfolio concept. Vidit's insights confirmed the novelty and potential for sensory-driven design to enhance memorability in recruitment. This provided crucial qualitative data on industry perceptions and the appetite for disruptive approaches.
Interview with Creative Director at Another Box Story: This interview was particularly pertinent due to Another Box Story's specialization in bespoke gifting experiences. The conversation explored parallels in experiential design and how physical, unboxed narratives could disrupt traditional portfolios. Their insights underscored the potential for "sensory engagement to cut through digital fatigue," while also highlighting practical challenges like "scalability and sustainability". This direct dialogue with industry leaders provided invaluable feedback, reinforcing the demand for memorable, hands-on experiences in creative recruitment.
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Key Insights & Strategic Direction
The research led to a profound insight: tangible design evokes sensory satisfaction, offering a much-needed break from digital burnout while being mindful of the planet. This formed the strategic backbone for UNBOXD, positioning it as a tactile portfolio that transformed "craft into hands-on experiences" . The core values of "Craft Over Code," "Curiosity. Not Clichés," and "Eco-Touched" directly stemmed from this research-driven understanding of what modern creative professionals and environmentally conscious studios value.
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Process Breakdown: From Concept to Tactile Prototype
The design process for UNBOXD was iterative and highly responsive to research findings:
Conceptualization: The fundamental idea was to reimagine the digital portfolio as a physical "unboxed" experience, mirroring the intrigue of subscription box unboxings but tailored for creative professionals . This required moving beyond a flat, screen-based mindset.
Strategic Content Design: The design focused on "Experience Over Explanation". This involved strategically layering elements within the box: a resume, a credit card letter, a visiting card, and product samples, all designed to be discovered sequentially upon unboxing.
Materiality & Sustainability: A key aspect of the research was exploring sustainable materials. The decision to use "Seed Paper" for the newsprint manifesto directly addressed the eco-impact concerns raised in the industry interviews, showcasing a commitment to "Eco-Touched" values (Fuad-Luke, 2009).
Feedback Integration & Refinement: The insights from the creative director interviews were crucial. While they validated the concept's disruptive potential, they also highlighted critical hurdles such as "scalability, cost, and eco-impact"). This feedback loop was integral to refining the concept, emphasizing the need to balance craft with pragmatism and target forward-thinking studios.
Outcome & Impact
The day concluded with a series of handovers. Each group presented their verbal territories and visual worlds to another shape group. This exchange of ideas fostered new perspectives and enriched the overall narrative development process. With these insights in mind, we embarked on the creation of storyboards, translating the verbal and visual elements into a clear sequence of events.
Key Takeaways:
The "UNBOXD" tactile portfolio concept emerged as a provocative prototype. It successfully challenged the inertia of digital saturation by reintroducing tactile, sensory engagement into creative recruitment. This project not only demonstrated my ability to craft a meaningful brand narrative but also my understanding of packaging as an emotional and experiential medium, ultimately leading to an internship offer.
References
Millennial Media. (2023). Digital Consumption & Media Fatigue Report. [Online]. (Example, replace with actual industry report if used).
Paul, J. (2025). Unit 2 Professional Practices Unit Briefing. (Verbal communication/Unit Guide).
Pine, B. J., & Gilmore, J. H. (1999). The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage. Harvard Business School Press.
Turkle, S. (2011). Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. Basic Books.
Simleen Virdi - Professional Practces-The Story Inside the box copy (1).pdf. (Your own PPU portfolio as an in-text reference).
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