Wen-Chi Hsueh, a talented Pratt Institute student under the guidance of Professor Hadar Kfir, rocketed to Gold in the New Talent 2024 competition with the “Air Shoes Packaging.” Drawing from a spaceship’s sleek, aerodynamic design, Wen-Chi’s creation marries futuristic cool with the practical desire for speed and agility. Every curve and contour appears to defy gravity and launch into the stratosphere. Forget mundane shoe boxes–this is a cosmic creation.
By: Wen-Chi Hsueh, Student, Pratt Institute
The Project
This air shoe packaging combines cutting-edge innovation with an otherworldly sense of freedom and lightness. Taking inspiration from the aerodynamic qualities of a spaceship, embracing the shoes’ focus on “air,” the packaging conveys the feeling of effortlessly cutting through the air and flying, representing the values of speed, agility, and innovation.
The spaceship-shaped packaging incorporates streamlined contours and lines and resonates with the fluidity of motion while highlighting the lightweight nature of the shoes. This feature not only echoes the air theme of the packaging but also accentuates the futuristic and fluid nature of motion. The sleek lines create a sense of forward momentum, echoing the wearer’s experience of propulsion and speed. Rather than just a shoe, it’s an embodiment of grace and velocity. Just like a spaceship defies the constraints of gravity, the Air Shoes defy the norms of traditional footwear. The packaging communicates a promise of unburdened movement, urging the consumer to imagine the sensation of weightlessness and liberation with every step.
Inspiration
“The shoe itself can be considered a work of art, as can the shoe package.” In this project, I tried to embody a fusion of artistic expression and functional innovation, creating a package that protects the shoe while enhancing its artistic value.
Challenges
As a graphic and packaging designer, my biggest challenge in this project was creating a prototype and AR. (I did not submit both of them in the competition.) Doing prototypes was challenging because it required skills beyond my usual graphic and packaging design experience. From modeling to final prototyping, the process required different skills and a deeper understanding of materiality, structure, and manufacturing processes.
In the AR design, integrating digital experiences with physical products was an entirely new frontier for me, adding another layer of complexity. I had to think about user experience in a three-dimensional space, ensuring that the AR elements were intuitive and added real value to the user. This involved a lot of trial and error, user testing, and iterations to get it right.
Despite these challenges, the experience was gratifying. It pushed me to expand my skill set and to practice the importance of continuous learning.
Wen-Chi Hsueh is a packaging and graphic designer from Taiwan based in New York who loves visual storytelling. She is passionate about how design connects people through visual language. She strives to create designs that benefit the world and connect people through positivity and bold ideas. The power of her design is to transform the ordinary into something extraordinary, making life more enjoyable and meaningful.
