So whilst I am waiting for my submission to get approved 🙏 I thought I’d post a little update here.

It’s my first submission and I missed the deadline for the Wallpaper design due to ‘life stuff’ For background, I run my own 3D ‘Studio’ essentially myself and freelance help on bigger client projects, but have always specialized in Apparel and Footwear industries and discovered the Nothing Community after a friend convinced me to trade my iPhone in for a Nothing phone recently.

My main motivation for entering was, after taking a year out of work after my wife gave birth to our first child I have been struggling to get back into a rhythm with clients and personal projects and felt these community projects would be something to focus on and also produce work in a product area outside of my comfort zone.

In my submission, ‘More is Less’ - Dieter Rams inspired of course - I wanted to take the established layout and aesthetic for the Phone ( 2a) packaging and give it a subtle, but striking development. I started by looking through Nothing’s design language and looked at ways of deconstructing their forms and grids, but still keeping the unique design aesthetic of the (2a) phone.

In 3D I then went about recreating a product shot in Cinema 4D & Redshift, that showed off the ‘dark mode’ of the Stage 1 winner with a focus on texturing and beautiful details. I felt that realistically, glowing ink for the packaging wouldn’t be practical in terms of both cost and it ever getting seen in real life, but added some hints of it to lift the imagery which itself carries the phosphorescent theme.

The final image was a composite of multiple renders which can be seen more clearly in a small video that was part of the submission. I just wanted to share some low res jpgs here, as I uploaded the submission hours ago, but it is yet to be approved :/ fingers crossed.

It’s wonderful to see and now be part of such a thriving design community.

    Related discussions

    Rob ⚡️ Hey Rob! The same thing happened to me; my proposal appears as “Unnamed.” Could you help me with this? Thanks!

        Inspired by high-tech design and minimalism, I named my packaging “Tilt” to capture dynamic light and motion through holographic elements. Tilting the box reveals shimmering patterns, making the first encounter exciting and futuristic.

        The sleeve features intricate holographic foil that catch light in various ways. I used simple lines and shapes to enhance the effect, creating an elegant and striking design.

        I integrated the product name ‘(2a)’ and the Nothing logos in a contrasting color to complement the visual harmony. The subtle branding keeps the focus on the holographic interplay.

        “Tilt” transforms unboxing into a journey of discovery, with each tilt revealing new facets of the geometric patterns. This ensures a memorable first impression, reflective of the phone’s high quality.

          Fractal not exactly lenticular design but in a way it is ( my idea was like the eyes of anime characters when they got excited or something, they shine in a way at certain angles)

              Fractal - thank you kindly, it was tough decision to break the 2 ‘eyes’ layout, but I did want to try something a little different and see how far the crops could be pushed before you didn’t recognise the product. Was fun to work on overall….

                  Fractal

                  Fractal I used the stage 1 winning design as the main contest as the design mainly focuses on shining at night the same concept is implemented over the whole cover in order to glow during night

                        Ian_H_Simmonds

                        The crop in your entry really looks awesome if I am being honest, it is really attractive. I really like the simplicity and the whole presentation. If 2a never had that fresh eyes and other eyes related marketing, your take would have really hit the home run.

                        The one eye crop has this high quality, premium feel to it. Almost like a tease.

                          ramanrathour - a holo foil box is a lovely idea! Reminds me of collecting Pokémon cards… 🔥

                          Also, that render of the shimmering purple is lush, lovely work 👏🏼

                            I think it might not be a bad idea to upload my designs here as well while I’m nervous about getting the approval. I actually lost both of the deadlines, each one for some not interesting reasons. But this time just got it in time. Submitted a few hours ago. Whew… Wish me approval!

                            Thanks for your time and hope you like it!

                              @“Rob ⚡️” Hey Rob, what’s up! I noticed my submission for phase 3 was named “Unnamed”, even after I entered my name on nothing.tech

                                Hello! I’m Carlos and this is my submission for Phase 3: Packaging Design. It uses a technique called Lenticular Printing to give it a nice glow effect (the main perk of the phone’s hardware). This is my first time working on a product for Nothing. However, some of you might recognize me as the kid from the “Nothing Unfiltered” video, where I reached out to Carl for an interview, in which we talked about many interesting matters, such as the future of AI, open source solutions and more.

                                The way Lenticular Printing works is the following: two images are interlined and printed. Then, the lens is placed on top of them. This lens has small cavities that reflect the light in two directions. If you see the object from the left side, you will see one state of the image. In this case, phone (2a) without glow. But if you see it from the opposite side, voilà! A glow effect is achieved. In the beginning, I also considered using bioluminescent ink, and honestly, I still think it’d look super sick. However, after thinking long and hard, I realized the Lenticular method is much more efficient when it comes to showcasing the effect. Let me explain. Imagine you walk into a shop, and see phone (2a) in the shelf. Even if it’s nighttime, you probably won’t be able to see the glow effect, as most stores have indoor lightning. With Lenticular Printing, however, you would be able to see the effect at all times, which is very useful when you are trying to attract the customer.

                                The overall design is very minimalistic, staying true to Nothing’s design, making it recognizable when among other products, and expressing the company’s vision. The product’s name; “phone (2a) Community Edition” is abbreviated as “phone (2a) CE”. However, the big (2a) text stays the same, as I believe Nothing’s Community is one of the biggest strengths of the company, and therefore this product should not be segregated among the other proprietary products.

                                These are some of the things that inspired this project… 😉

                                I also made this short video showcasing the design, I hope you like it!

                                ❄︎☟︎✋︎💧︎ 🏱︎☼︎⚐︎☺︎☜︎👍︎❄︎ 🕈︎✌︎💧︎ ✞︎☜︎☼︎✡︎📪︎ ✞︎☜︎☼︎✡︎ ✋︎☠︎❄︎☜︎☼︎☜︎💧︎❄︎✋︎☠︎☝︎

                                mei - congrats on getting a submission in on-time for this stage! 👏🏼

                                Fingers crossed it is all approved soon, because I love the ideas behind your design.

                                Utilising the wallpapers, and their shape into the box is a nice touch, then seeing your skills in AutoCAD come across to the replicating the “eyes”. As well as the reference to the LEGO 👀

                                The voting stage shall be tough, once again…best of luck to you all! 👏🏼

                                • mei replied to this.

                                    🚨Stage: 3 submissions are now closed🚨
                                    Some new entries may appear after this time, as they are approved by the team, however no new submissions can be made.
                                    Check back on 24 June to show support for your favourite entry. 

                                    • One vote per user

                                    • Votes cannot be changed

                                    • Choose carefully!

                                    A reminder that the final decision lies with our internal jury, meaning the most-voted project may not necessarily win.

                                    Rob ⚡️ changed the title to Community Edition - Stage 3 Submissions Now Closed .

                                    It’s been amazing seeing all the submissions flooding in. Good luck to all those that took part 🤞