Google Pixel Influencer Box: The Sequel

Google Pixel Influencer Box Design & Printing: Manufactured In New York City

An Interview With Andy Hort Of Earth Enterprise In NYC

Interviewer: Let’s focus on the Google Pixel Influencer Box. What’s different about this one compared to the last?

Andy: Right, so this influencer box had to stand out from the last one, which was already pretty amazing. They came up with this “book-to-hold-new-phone” concept. So a book/box. It looks like a book from the outside, but it’s really a secret box. The front has the book design, and there’s a paper platform insert holding the Pixel inside.

Interviewer: Got it. A book box. Explain the book part. Does it have actual pages?

Andy: It’s got eight pages inside. From the side, it looks like a real book, but it’s a box. Really a box made above a 2-inch gilded well that looks like pages from the side. Super cool concept.

Interviewer: Whose idea was this? Yours or the agencies?

Andy: The agency’s concept, but I helped refine it. I showed them some similar samples from past jobs, one for Tommy Hilfiger, one for Clinique and another for Nemacolin. We went through four rounds of prototypes and a lot of testing to get it right.

Interviewer: Nice. What are the nuances of this box beyond the book look?

Andy: Oh man, this is probably the most complicated job I’ve ever done. It was really five different jobs that comprised one big job. The first challenge was creating the book block out of board. We had to die cut board and hand glue it to make a 2-inch block with a well. The outside of the book block wasn’t flush, so we gilded them and had to put them through the sander three times. Then a turned-edge case needed to be made with custom ink, clear foil, and a registered deboss. It also needed a laser-cut slip case, as well as an 8-pager made with raised digital foil and raised UV. Lastly, we needed a removable tray. Each “job” had major challenges. Making the foil on the cover fit perfectly from the laser-cut slip case was my last major challenge. SO, I made the cases and tested each one vs a standard slip case. Then I made five different slip cases – some a bit to the right, some to the left, some more to the left, some up, and some down. In the end we finally had a slip case that fit perfectly.

Interviewer: I see some silver on the edge. Is that the gilding?

Andy: Exactly. We had to run it through the gilder three times to get the density right because the edges weren’t flush. Normally, it’s just one pass.

Interviewer: Interesting. How did you make it look like a case-bound book?

Andy: That was tough. The board wasn’t flush, so we sanded it down and down again. We also printed a sheet and applied it to the inside of the well, which I’d never done before. For the pages, they wanted an embossed look, but blind embossing on black paper just disappeared. So, we printed, laminated, and used digital raised UV at two different levels, plus digital foil.

Interviewer: I see the phone shape, that’s the digital raised UV, right? And there’s a silver silhouette behind the silver text?

Andy: Yup. The foil is the text, and the phone shape is the highest UV level. The foil has a lower UV layer.

Interviewer: That’s impressive. How about the inside liner of the case and the well?

Andy: The top and bottom of the well used the same metallic digital silver, soft touch laminated to match everything. The cover has a custom PMS, soft touch laminate, blind emboss, and foil. The black piece is a 3-part, die-cut tray.

Interviewer: That emboss is slick.

Interviewer: What was the customer’s reaction?

Andy: The graphic designer absolutely loved it and said we “nailed it.” We had to accommodate numerous changes that impacted the timeline. It took three and a half weeks to start shipping from our final ok, which is insanely fast for this complexity.

Interviewer: Very impressive! Nobody else could pull this off except Earth Enterprise and Andy Hort!