Rachel has done several freelance projects for Darice, and an overseas company that sells to Michael's Stores since 2011. These projects are some of her favorites to work on. She enjoys the challenge of creating dielines for 3-D structures from flat materials. The projects she has primarily worked on are 3-D foam structures and building kits.
She is typically given a rough pencil sketch or inspiration images for the structure , and a style guide to follow for the characters, theme and colors. She then imagines the 3-D structure in her head and how it would puzzle together. She then translates it to flat die-lines in illustrator without having any physical materials in front of her. She just has a way of figuring it out in her head and putting it right onto the computer screen. This allows her to work at a productive pace while maintaining accuracy. She then does a 3-D rendering in Illustrator and sends it for approval. Once the design is approved, technical specifications for the factory are made, and product assembly directions for the consumer.
These kits are sold in major retailers including Michael's, Target and others.
All Products and Images on this page are the property of Darice, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The project she is most proud of that she designed for Darice was the 2015 Christmas train structure. She also came up with the locking tab design on this project so that no glue would be needed to hold the structure together. The wheels function so that the child can actually play with the train after they create it. She was told that this was the #2 best seller in the Michael's Christmas set for 2015, and the design has been recolored and re-sold for following years. She worked on the recolored version for the 2016 version as well.
Here is the 3-D computer rendering of the original design
An early in-house prototype of the first two cars on the train design is shown to the left. The final product in packaging at Michael's is shown on right. As you can see, there is excellent continuity between concept and final product at retail.
The re-styled and colored version for the 2016 set.
The final 2016 product in packaging at Michael's.
She has done several other products for Darice and other companies selling to Michael's, below are just some of the renderings and final packaging photos from a variety of structures she designed and worked on.
Below is also an example of the word free instructions for assembly that she created for one of these kits. She was limited to only a few steps and a small area on the packaging to show the assembly directions.
All Products and Images on this page are the property of Darice, Inc. All Rights Reserved.