Ian McKinnell

Logitech products have sophisticated technology hidden inside. The X ray views I developed for them allowed this wizardry to be seen & highlighted in their packaging & marketing materials. Gamers are a younger audience with different demands to Logitech’s main users & the goal of this project was to make the G series products & packaging distinctive with the tagline 'Science Wins!'​​​​​​​

The original brief was to create X Ray images for one half of the product & merge this together with an actual photograph. It could have been made to work, but presented many problems to overcome - especially accurately matching the perspective of the two images. I suggested creating photo-realistic images of the outside instead, using the same model as the X Ray so the fit would be perfect.

The shelves of a computer store are a very busy place and standing out is not easy. The X ray styling created a distinctive, instantly recognisable image - even from a distance.

Following the creation of photo realistic images of the products the next step was to replace the photographs previously used on the packaging with illustrations. Using this approach meant that the box could be ready for a product before it entered production & presented a significant cost saving for Logitech: no expensive prototype models, no expensive photography. This was especially significant for creating images of the various regional versions of Logitech products. Logitech are called Logicool in Japan, and there are a number of different keyboard layouts. The G310 box at the top is the Chinese version, I’m sure you spotted that.

CGI also gave greater flexibility: it’s a lot easier to adapt a 3d model than get a new prototype made and I could quickly show new colours & artwork printed on the product. The packaging, products & even Logitechs logo evolved (twice!) over the course of the project and this approach meant that these changes could be incorporated relatively easily. In most cases I retouched the lettering without having to re-render the images.

This was a challenging project that I really enjoyed and I learnt a lot, especially about CAD programmes which are very different to the kind of modelling programmes I normally use. I feel proud seeing the packaging in the shops & my sons love the free games equipment Logitech sent me!