The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2023–2024
Mint Design turns Matisse's Journey into a travel-case DIY kit — Pentawards 2024 Platinum
A kids' ornament kit whose packaging is a 'magic travel case' with straps and drawers, making Matisse's art hands-on — Pentawards 2024 Platinum.
Mint Design · UCCA Kids
What it had to solve
UCCA Kids and Mint Design wanted children to experience the Matisse's Matisse exhibition and the Matisse's Journey picture book as hands-on creativity, not just images on a page. The pack also had to work for small hands: safe, durable and impossible to resist opening.
How it works
Matisse's Journey DIY Ornament Kit is a children's craft product created by Chinese agency Mint Design for UCCA Kids, inspired by the UCCA-curated Matisse's Matisse exhibition and the Matisse's Journey picture book. Mint Design's practice is 'cultural storytelling + user experience,' and the kit was built so children feel Matisse's color and shape with their hands instead of just seeing slides.
The central move is packaging as a 'magic travel case': the box mimics the suitcase Matisse carries in the book, with elastic straps and a drawer-style structure so children unpack materials like treasure. Green-and-yellow surfaces carry hand-drawn illustrations of the artist with his case, and inside sit paper-cut shapes, colored crayons and assembly parts in Matisse's signature cut-out style.
Every detail was tuned for small users: Mint Design repeatedly tested the drawer mechanism to stop tearing, adjusted the elastic handles for small hands, and balanced safety and durability against the complex 3D structure. The unboxing ritual unfolds like story chapters — opening the box is the first creative act of the adventure.
The kit won Pentawards 2024 Platinum in Home, Leisure & Other Markets. In Pentawards' interview, Mint Design said the jury praised the 'strong emotional connection' of the design, validating their narrative-plus-experience approach to packaging.
Why it lands
- It turns a passive art encounter into an active one: children collage, draw and assemble their own ornaments in Matisse's cut-out style.
- The packaging is the product — the suitcase-with-straps structure is itself a toy, so the brand experience starts at the moment of opening.
- Every functional detail, from drawer durability to handle size, was tested with children, so the concept survives real small hands.
- It connects a museum exhibition, a picture book and a physical product into one coherent story, extending the exhibition beyond the gallery walls.
What it did
Won Pentawards 2024 Platinum in Home, Leisure & Other Markets, with the jury praising its 'strong emotional connection'; the design turned an exhibition tie-in into a toy that sells the art experience before the scissors even come out.
What you can take
When the product is about art, make the package part of the art: a box children can 'unpack like a journey' turns opening into the first creative act.
Since then
The kit became the flagship result of Mint Design's Matisse's Journey series, following the storybook built around the UCCA exhibition. The Pentawards Platinum brought the project international visibility, and Mint Design continued the storybook-to-product model with a new artist-illustrated book and derivative products exploring language and symbols. The agency said it would keep pushing cultural narrative plus experience design for children's, home-lifestyle and cultural clients.
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