Know when to fold [box designs]

Boxes made of corrugated cardboard are ubiquitous, but often overlooked. Some boxes are remarkable because they´re made of a single piece of cardboard, which is neither glued nor taped. Yet they´re capable of great strength, rigidity and longevity. In this article, I share a few box designs and talk a little about how I like to think about them. My goal is not so much to present specific boxes, but to get your 3D visualization skills fired up. Once you make the models and play with them and start thinking about where the pieces fold and where the clearances should be, then you can start seeing the entire shape in your head. The simple 2D layout transforms into an imminent 3D object: the template seems to want to jump up and fold itself up into a box, and you can see in your mind´s eye just how cleanly everything fits and how strong and stable the result will be