For this project we had to create a matchbook with a concept that relates to “fire” or “match”. The matchbook also had to have intricate design elements and attention to detail.

I chose to theme my matchbooks around dragons since they breathe fire. I made a series of five books and designed each one to be shaped like a dragon egg. When you open it, you’ll be greeted with a dragon and your matches. Each one is a different color so you don’t know which dragon you will get.

First I sketched out ideas until I found a concept that I like, in this case I chose dragons. Then I did research on illustrated matchbooks and matchboxes to find inspiration. I narrowed down my final design and began illustrating in Procreate. After my design was finished, I printed and assembled each book. And as a final touch I added gold embossing details on the front. 

It was definitely a challenge to plan a design that had to be functional as well as visually pleasing. Assembling it even once the design was made was also hard. Each time I made a print copy, something needed tweaking that I hadn’t noticed before.