New: Peppermint Studio — Try it →

    Case study · Boxes · Print Peppermint sample pack

    A cast of paper characters, printed into the glaze

    Our Paper Boyz illustrations, a cast of square paper characters in coral and black, dye-sublimated as a full wrap on an 11 oz white mug with a black interior and handle.

    Boxes for Print Peppermint sample pack with 11 oz ceramic, white body, black interior glaze and handle, dye sublimation, full wrap and 2-colour artwork: coral + black line.

    The idea

    The Paper Boyz started as doodles explaining stock weights: a slim character, a thick one, one asking whether it's getting thick. They explain paper better than a spec table does.

    Three rules

    1. 01Two colours on a four-colour process. Locked the coral to one CMYK build and proofed it on the actual blank rather than paper. What you see is that build, not a Pantone we can't…
    2. 02Composing for the handle. Laid the cast out so the two densest groups sit on the front and back faces and the gaps fall at the handle. Nothing important gets cut.
    3. 03Black interior. Black interior and handle. It frames the artwork and hides a month of use.

    Why we made it

    Putting them on a mug was the obvious move. It goes in the sample pack and it stays on a desk, which is more than a spec sheet ever does.

    Macro of dye-sublimation print on glazed ceramic showing ink inside the glaze
    Macro. The ink is in the glaze, not on it: no edge lip, no relief, nothing to chip.
    Two Paper Boyz mugs rotated to show the full 360-degree dye sublimation wrap
    Two mugs, opposite rotations: the whole wrap in one frame.

    Start from these materials

    Same paper, foil and finish, locked in — nothing of Print Peppermint sample pack's artwork comes with it.