SSD Raised to the Cube — Redragon × Hiksemi Packaging Art

Case Study — Raised to the Cube Redragon × Hiksemi · Packaging Art · Art Challenge

An original artwork for the cubic packaging of the Hiksemi SSD, in partnership with Redragon — integrating brand identity, visual narrative, and packaging nostalgia, three territories that rarely coexist in a tech product.

The final piece places the mascot Semi and Draquinho in an illuminated gamer room, surprised by the speed of the new SSD, watched by a red dragon in the background. The title crosses the scene in motion, amplifying the three-dimensionality — a direct reference to the cubic format of the product and the name of the artwork itself.

Brands

Hiksemi × Redragon

Medium

Cubic packaging, 6 faces

Result

13th among +1,000 entries

Title

Raised to the Cube

Process · 01 — Briefing

A medium that has no "front".

The briefing was twofold: the artwork needed to work as a promotional piece for a tech product, but also survive printed on the six faces of a physical cubic packaging. This meant resolving visual hierarchy on a medium that has no "front" — every face is a first impression. And at the same time, respecting two distinct brand universes (corporate Hiksemi, gamer Redragon) without one dominating the other.

Process · 02 — Draft

Worked as a piece. Not as an argument.

In the first draft, I imagined Semi and Draquinho in front of a monitor, surprised by the speed of the SSD. Technology, movement, joy. It worked as a piece — but only as a piece, not as an argument.

The Turning Point

It lacked
a world.

After studying the winners of previous editions of the challenge, I realized the problem: the award-winning artworks didn't show the product being used — they showed a world where the product existed. The difference is huge. My draft was a scene. It lacked a world. I decided to start from scratch.

Process · 03 — Reconstruction

The SSD stops being an object and becomes an event.

I built a gamer room full of details — an arcade cabinet, plushies, portraits, an illuminated window. Each element had a narrative function: the arcade anchors nostalgia, the portraits suggest family and time, the window situates the time of day. The SSD stops being an object and becomes an event within a recognizable everyday life. The red dragon watches from the background — the presence of the Redragon brand without needing a logo.

Process · 04 — The Title

The promise of a universe inside the box.

The title "Raised to the Cube" emerged at the end, symbolizing both the format of the artwork and the idea of something expanding in power, speed, and technology. The proposal is to awaken the same feeling we had when looking at the covers of old Super Nintendo cartridges — that curiosity and excitement of imagining the universe inside the box.

"Raised to the Cube" came last — after the artwork was finished, not before. It symbolizes the physical format of the packaging and the idea of expanded power at the same time. It is also a direct reference to the covers of Super Nintendo cartridges from the 90s: that promise of an entire universe contained within a box. The artwork sells the product using the same emotional mechanism that sold games thirty years ago.

05 — What It Demonstrates

It worked on the
second try.

Placement

13th place

Competition

+1,000 entries

13th place among over a thousand entries is not a victory — it is validation. More useful than that: the project is documented evidence of a specific posture. The ability to kill your own work when it is not up to the problem, and start from scratch without ego.

Most portfolio case studies show work that succeeded on the first try. This one shows work that succeeded on the second. Both skills matter — but only one of them is hard to teach.