Super Kids Cape

The Cricket Company sells kids’ haircutting capes and periodically updates the line with a new cape. When Cricket wanted to produce a new kids’ cape I explored many ideas, and we chose to use a comic book/super hero theme.

I found inspiration for the cape in the typographical sound effects found in super hero comic books. After creating several of my own, I used them to make a vector pattern in Illustrator. We sent the pattern artwork to the factory making the capes, and I photographed models wearing the capes when they were finished.

Next I began work on the packaging. There were a some constraints when designing the packaging for this cape. The packaging needed to have the purple gradient, show models in a specific manner and follow typographic guidelines I had set up for all the Cricket apparel product lines.

All other Cricket apparel boxes have a die cut window on the side to reveal the actual product inside. I wanted to do something different for the Super Kids Cape since this product was not like the typical haircutting cape. I used the idea of a super hero mask with eye holes cut out to give customers a peek at the actual cape inside. Below are several other mask designs I explored.

The back of the box has a full shot of the model to better show how the cape will look with a kid wearing it. The strap from the mask on the front wraps around to the back of the box helping to tie the overall design together.

I used elements from the typographic style of the cape pattern to create the logo. The 3D letters, slanted orientation and colors add a playfulness to the logo helping customers see this product as something geared towards children.