Slow Clouds

Wisdom Teeth Wisdom Teef EP

I’ve been playing in a band called Wisdom Teeth for three years now.  We recorded eleven new songs in January 2009, of which five of the songs were released March 2010. After one whole year of hee-haaing around about how we would pay for this one package or that one design, we finally we were at a point where we had shows, but nothing physically new in hand to promote. Instead of showing up empty handed, I asked the other members if they were cool with me designing the package by hand, sans computer, so we could have something to sell.

Originally we planned on screen printing blank Arigato Packs, which you can buy directly from Stumptown Printers of Portland.  Arigato Packs are thick pieces of cardstock made from 100% recycled chipboard that are pre-cut and scored so that you can easily fold them up into a small box that has the same dimensions as a CD case. Think plastic CD jewel case meets the classic Chinese take-out box. When you buy a case of Arigatos – cases can be as small as twenty –  they arrive flat and unfolded. I have seen the Arigato in only two forms, a greyish color with one side coated white (used below) or natural brown with both sides uncoated. We decided to go with the grey/white option and flip it inside-out. This provided the sterile look we were going for and the grey would also contrast nicely with the black ink and white paint.   The uncoated grey side also provided a better surface for the inks to adhere to.

Add a little ink and acrylic paint.

After designing the outside, we needed to add a few other tidbits to make the release “official”.  This required including the label release number, date of release and minor shout outs. I added these with pen, but we also included a stamp indicating the print series.

Arigato's like to be stamped too.

One final little flourish we added was to emboss one of the label’s logos (Radio is Down) onto the back, which added a very nice, yet subtle touch. You can get an embosser with your own custom designed plates for pretty cheap these days. I would start looking here.

An embossed Arigato Pack.

Now that you are excited about doing your own hand packaging design, please allow us to provide one suggestion, keep it simple, quick and cheap.  Even though this particular design uses four different forms of media, each step can be done very quickly because the detail is minimal.  Each Arigato can be completed in just under ten minutes. Yes, this includes writing Wisdom Teef 43 times on each piece.

Marcel Duchamp

The idea of a gallery in a suitcase is not a new one, as evidenced by Marcel Duchamp’s Box in a Suitcase (1935-1940), a portable miniature monograph including sixty-nine reproductions of the artist’s own work. Over the last few weeks, I have been working on a boite en valise of my own, based on an interpretation of a passage from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. While the initial idea was to curate a series of discrete objects into a box that represents the city; my background in art, with a strong penchant toward visual media has taken over,  and it is morphing into more of a diorama (just much less figurative). Though really, who doesn’t love a good diorama?

But suddenly these curious cabinets are turning up everywhere! Just last week, at the White Box gallery in Portland, there appeared some fantastic shipping crates carefully designed to unfold in marvelous ways. The traveling exhibit is called 4 Salvaged Boxes, designed by wHY Architecture, from materials salvaged during the construction of the Grand Rapids Art Museum.  Upon opening, the boxes unfold to reveal their contents, materials and information about sustainable design.

wHY Architecture