BSG Dog Tag Packaging

In 2007, QMx asked me to create some retail packaging for a line of Battlestar Galactica dogtags. It was a pretty straightforward package design, but it was the first time I’d designed packaging for retail. I had to follow some pretty strict guidelines from Universal Studios’ licensing people regarding imagery, logo placement and the like.

I actually picked up this project about halfway through the design process, so another designer laid the basic groundwork of the shape of the package (with the trademark Battlestar Galactica cut-off corners) and the way the dogtags would be presented in the blister pack. I was asked to take that concept art and create a finished, camera-ready product, including designing the collectible card inserted in each package.

A note of advice to designers working on licensed products: tread carefully when considering where to place logos, and how to size them, especially when there are multiple studios and companies that need to be featured. This product had the QMx, Universal and SciFi logos, and it was important to all of them that the others not be larger than theirs. It’s understandable, but a balancing act nonetheless.

Since this was my first retail product, there were a lot of elements I had to include that I’d never even given a second thought before, from the UPC code to the graphic warning to parents to keep the product out of the hands of children under 3 years old. The package also didn’t have a die-cut hang tag when I started working on it, so I had to figure out how to add that to the design. I spent a lot of time in toy stores during this project. Doing research. (That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!)

When I was happy with the art, I sent it off to QMx, and they sent it on up the chain to the Universal people, who sent their edits back down to QMx, who relayed them to me, and the process started again. We went through several significant edits before settling on the final version.