Custom Pizza Box Illustration for Mario's Pizza • Steph Calvert Art

A few months ago, I heard from Ben at Mario’s Original Pizza & Pasta in Baltimore, Maryland. He was looking to have a custom pizza box illustration created.

He wanted something crazy. With tons to look at.

I had a ball coming up with all kinds of fun hand drawn elements and hand lettering for every side of the box. I just recently got to hold the finished pizza box in my very own two hands, and couldn’t wait to get some pictures so I could share it with you guys!

Drawing everything by hand was the easy part! Where this project got a tiny bit tricky was editing Ben’s logo for Mario’s Original Pizza & Pasta so it could print in just 1 color, but thanks to some Photoshop and Illustrator magic I was able to make it happen.

Ben was super into the idea of every single surface of his pizza box having something fun to look at. To make it happen, I had lots of conversations with his pizza box printer to figure out safe zones, artwork setup, and color limitations so this baby wouldn’t run into any problems in production.

Ben also loved the idea of some kind of coupon element on his pizza box. Once I received a sample of the pizza box we’d be printing on in the mail, and I started playing around with places to put the coupon that would really work for both Mario’s and the pizza loving customer, I thought of something awesome.

What if the box became even more interactive?

When you follow the directions and look inside…

You discover a coupon for a free 16″ cheese pizza if you collect 10 coupons from your delivery orders!

Flipping this coupon up and tearing along the fold line of the cardboard box means ease of use for the customer as well.

No scissors needed! The coupon’s also big enough to not get lost in the kitchen junk drawer – the unique way the customer happens upon the coupon, and the size of it… It becomes something a little more special that you can tuck away in a safe place for future free pizza eating.

It’s so cool to see this custom pizza box illustration project in person, because the two color printing just adds a little something to the flat Illustrator file I was producing with my marker drawings. Check out that little car, how the green and red inks overlap juuuuuust a little.

And don’t forget! If you’re anti-social when it comes to the phone, Mario’s Original Pizza & Pasta is set up to take your order online!

Want your pizza even faster? Click here to grab their mobile app.

The bottom of the pizza box might be my favorite – it’s just chock full of sayings Ben sent me in a slew of inspired emails. Check out how the delivery driver is holding the same pizza box he’s printed on!

That’s inception, isn’t it?

And that happy little turtle, who – like the pizza – is best enjoyed right side up…

I never did get around to counting all of the mushrooms I drew on this custom pizza box illustration but I probably should. Because you know that question is coming.