These Boxes For Refugee Supplies Double As Kids’ Toys

Refugees often receive aid shipped in cardboard boxes–which then might go to waste. One designer has created conceptual packaging that doubles a children’s toys.

The project is called Inside the Box. Designer Lisanne Koning proposes printing colorful shapes and game boards onto cardboard boxes so that children can use the extra material as fodder for play.

One game, complete with blocky dice folded together out of cardboard, looks like a pirate-themed variation on Candy Land. Another box features an illustrated backdrop with a mountain, rolling hills, desert, and beach scenes as well as cut-out animals like a camel, giraffe, and flamingo. A third box is decorated with a truck design that kids can cut out, fold, and link together to make a three-dimensional toy.

“Every child deserves the chance to play untroubled no matter what the circumstances are,” Koning writes on her website. She created Inside the Box for her thesis project at Design Academy Eindhoven, and it was on display at Dutch Design Week in October.

Koning tested the idea with a group of Syrian refugees in the Netherlands. She also corresponded with a few agencies during her research, though she isn’t working with any of them to bring the idea to life, at least not yet. In theory, the only outlay for a relief agency would be a slightly inflated cost on the box because of the ink needed to print the designs.

Video

Impact

The world’s largest rooftop farm will open soon in Paris

Why we need better, bigger data to help combat food waste

Why this Google product manager left to work on criminal justice reform

Creativity

It’s tempting to compare HBO’s ‘Righteous Gemstones’ and ‘Succession,’ so let’s do it

How celebrity shout-out startup Cameo is trying to turn its 15 minutes into full-fledged stardom

Here are some real (and unreal) problems Trump has somehow blamed on the ‘Fake News Media’

Co.Design

Would you dare fly with this $30,000 heirloom roller bag?

These Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and Domino’s logo mash-ups will break your brain

Infographic: What is America’s most hated sandwich?

Work Life

Here’s how to cultivate a work environment that produces great ideas

These are the 3 potential pitfalls of managing up

This is what many B2B companies are doing wrong when they build products