Sarah's Clamshell Portfolio Box

I was recently contacted by someone to make for her a clamshell box that she would use to put her portfolio in. She found my Sketchbook Swirl Clamshell Box and wanted me to make her one.

Since I was making a custom box for her I told her that I could design it to compliment her portfolio. I sketched out a bunch of ideas with designs that went along with her portfolio website that she was putting together, along with some that were very different to contrast and emphasize her work.

A page of sketches for the project.

After we narrowed the design down a bit I made a mock of the box in Photoshop. She said that she wanted to go with a zen style of design so I found this zen rock garden image, painted out the large rock in the image and painted in the box. I made the file so that it would be easy to switch and explore different colors quickly.

This is my favorite design and colors for the box.

I explored many colors taken from her designs.


Red, Black, and White = Default Cool Colors. If you need something to look cool try these colors, most of the time they work really well.

Some coloring schemes were just to try something completely different. When I do that I don't usually expect to find one of the final answers to the problem but it helps me stretch out, hopefully go too far, so that I can tone it back down and find something I wouldn't have tried otherwise. This is a good idea for any aspect of what you're creating.




Always nice to pull way back and see the elegance of a simple design. Can be the best solution.

For this one I wanted to see what the box would look like without the thought bubble logo. I tried to go too far with the colors and I think I really hit that with this one. Yup, these colors are wrong for this project, which is what I was going for, but I really like that blue, and I'd be willing to try that on something else.

And an invisible box just 'cause.

Designing this box was a blast.

Here is a post on resources you can use to make your own clamshell box, or please contact me if you would like a custom clamshell box made for you. They aren't cheep, but they can be beautiful and a great compliment and protection to the contents. My e-mail address is in my profile.