Artwork by Design Studio B.O.B.
Part of the fun of giving and receiving gifts during the winter season is reveling in brightly wrapped packages. With Adobe Illustrator’s powerful pattern tool, you can easily create playful, personal wrapping designs. To get you started, we asked Lilly Friedeberg and Alessia Sistori, of Design Studio B.O.B., to create a set of winter gift giving templates — including a gift box, gift tags, and a gift card holder — that you can decorate, print, and assemble at home.
“As female founders, we always thought it was funny to say we have this boss, Bob. ‘Oh, we have to ask Bob to give us a day off,’,” says Lilly Friedeberg. In reality, B.O.B. is a reference to the locations of their two offices in Germany: Berlin and Oberlink (a district in Düsseldorf). The pair met as graphic design students about ten years ago, bonded over a shared love of illustration and bold colors, and founded Design Studio B.O.B. in 2018. The studio specializes in branding, packaging, and illustration with a wide-ranging client base that includes culinary and tech brands.
Alessia’s package templates exude joy with their wiggly design, and Lilly’s illustrations of be-sweatered pups and ice cream cones belay both designer’s obsession with the simple but eye-catching graphics of The Simpsons and vintage Nintendo. Download the templates and pattern elements and read on to learn how to make a bespoke pattern, with tips from Design Studio B.O.B.
STEP 1/5
Pattern Play.
Click the link above to open the file in Illustrator. You’ll find templates for a box, a gift card holder, and a set of gift tags, as well as a set of ridiculously cute illustrations that you can use to make a pattern.
Click on the illustrations you want to use in your pattern with the Selection tool, then copy (ctrl + c) and paste (ctrl + v) them into the blank artboard beneath. Arrange them how you might like them to appear in your pattern, select all of them, then go to Object > Pattern > Make. You can make any adjustments you like by resizing or moving objects. Once you’re happy, name your pattern, hit Done and the pattern will be added to your Swatches panel (Window > Swatches).
Lilly suggests keeping it simple: “Choose just two of your favorite illustrations.” To get you started, you’ll find a readymade pattern in the Swatches panel called “Weiner Dogs in Space”. Double-click it to open in the Pattern tool.
STEP 2/5
Apply the Pattern
To apply the pattern, select any template by clicking on the border with the Selection tool, then click the pattern swatch in the Swatches panel and watch it fill the design.
To add a background color behind the pattern, use the Shape tool to draw a rectangle over the template, then double-click the Fill tool and chose a color. With the rectangle selected, go to Object > Arrange > Send to Back to place it behind the pattern. Don’t worry about the color spilling outside the design, you’ll just trim it off after printing. For a harmonious design, Alessia suggests using a color that is already part of the color palette, or just a bit darker or lighter.
STEP 3/5
Mask it up.
You can apply patterns to the gift tags using the same technique above, but Studio B.O.B also suggests using just one of the illustrations since it’s a smaller object. To do this, a Clipping Mask comes in handy.
First, select the tag, then color it in with the Fill tool. Copy and paste an illustration on top. Select the tag only (click the edge with the Selection tool) then go to Edit > Copy and then Edit > Paste in Place. Your illustration will be covered up, but that’s OK! Select both the illustration and the top tag art and group them (Object > Group) then go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make. Your illustration should now appear in front of the background color clipped to the shape of the tag.
STEP 4/5
Take it to the next level.
Try getting bespoke with your own design. Select a template, fill it with color, then copy and paste illustrations on top of it, rearranging and resizing them as you go.
Lilly recommends working from the middle out, and to think about where the illustrations will appear on the object — you may not want a dog’s behind on the center of the box, for instance. And most importantly, experiment: “Even if you’re happy with the outcome, question yourself and try another version. You might find it looks better than the one before.” You can even try mixing in your own brand logo, or a photo of your beloved dog.
STEP 5/5
Print it out.
These designs are formatted to print on a home printer, using 8.5-11” paper. We recommend using a sturdy cardstock to print them. For assembly, it can help to gently score the paper along the seams with a ruler and craft knife (don’t cut all the way through) for neat folding. Double sided tape is both faster and neater than glue. As to what you fill them with — that’s entirely up to you.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Design Studio B.O.B. was founded in 2018 by designers Alessia Sistori and Lilly Friedeberg. The two met studying graphic design in Berlin in 2011. After discovering a shared love of illustration, colors, branding, and packaging, they founded their own studio, which has offices in Berlin and Düsseldorf. Their clients include big brands such as Apple Music, Katjes Greenfood, and Klarna, as well as startups. They believe in the benefits of small team, personal relationships with clients, and the power of teaming up with other studios to put together the perfect team for each client.
