Welcome to my archive of products and packages.
Some that are literal packages, others that aren't exactly packages or products but fit in this category better than other categories in this archive. From standards like playing cards and pinback buttons, to more unusual items like stereographic cards and fake packages wrapped in brown paper and string, I've done quite a number of things.
The number of surfaces and different forms of container for products, or even the products themselves, presents such great potential that I always try to take advantage of. I love finding excuses to hide easter eggs or create patterns for printing on interior surfaces or for adding small seals and other doodads. Whosiewhatsits? Geegaws? Whatever word you like to use.
The Order of the Great Dreamer is a 1920s Lovecraftian puzzle game that presents itself as a package sent to the player from a professor who's disappeared. The box is wrapped in kraft paper and twine, with replicas of period accurate stamps and a fabricated Los Angeles postal stamp with the date the game takes place.
The front has an envelope tucked under the twine with the game's name, and once opened gives the player the necessary backstory and context for the game. The back has a card slipped into it with a full description of its summary, difficulty level, and separates everything into each quadrant divided by the twine.
Using code, the exterior pattern of each of these playing card tuck cases was randomly generated. The cards themselves take design inspiration from that code but are purposefully designed. The random variations of shapes recall that of jazz movements, thus giving these cards their name as a commemoration of the upcoming 110th anniversary of the birth of jazz.
To further call back to the era in which jazz was born, a 1917 playing card tax stamp is used to seal both the box and the parchment encasing the cards themselves. The inside also features the jazz pattern, leaving no surface overlooked.
Stereographic cards made for my Hill and Dale Phonographic Tours concept, they're meant to accompany a different wax cylinder to be played on a tour of the Arboretum at Cal State Fullerton. A narrow band with the logo on the exterior, and interior printing of a subdued pattern of foliage holds the set of cards together.
Is it technically packaging? Who can say? Each of the three sections of this gumball machine was specially deesigned by me for use in the Mountain Room Escapes game The Golden Key Time Travel Agency. Inside are clues for one of the puzzles, but one remains empty and rather than leave it completely empty, I made a sign that looks like it could contain something, but tells the player that it would be a waste of a quarter if they picked it. A gold mine of strange jokes, these labels are.
A fake toilet cleaner made for a Mountain Room Escapes murder mystery in which a mint scented toilet cleaner was required as part of a plot point, thus birthing this label promising just how safe this cleaner would be should it be ingested by children or animals (and incapable of killing someone).
I designed these buttons as soon as the COVID-19 vaccines were made available, and to accompany them for sale I designed these backing cards to poke fun at ridiculous conspiracy theories surrounding the vaccine.
I made the backings opposite in color from each other so the button better stood out, and to keep the branding consistent between the two of them.
This also treads the line between package and sign, but it was my solution to create a more eye-catching display for the various pinback button designs I made for Mountain Room Escapes.