Title: Illusions
Client: Concepts x New Balance
Behind The Scenes: I was approached by Concepts to do packaging for an upcoming New Balance release. After a long, prosperous brainstorm I initiated with the team, we decided to combine all NB collabs (there were 8) together for the remainder of 2017 with an overarching theme. With time against us, The "concept" was a really big idea to articulate clearly to the team so we missed the Tyrian drop packaging execution, but was able to give it a nod through the liner design of the remaining releases. Illusions seemed to be a reoccurring theme that each sneaker story was inspired by. The first box was for a sneaker called the "Des Sable" and told the story of a horrifying experience of cross country runners getting lost in the desert upon a sea of mirages. For this reason, I wanted to use an anamorphic illustration style that seemed to fit in with the mirage theme. I proposed incorporating this illustration style into the entire collection, but in the end, I came up with an idea to write fake newspaper articles that would leave a breadcrumb throughout the drop sequence leaving clues for the next drop. The ComplexCon packaging, was intense because we needed to take a glance at how the setup would look and how the packaging could work with the booth design almost 6 months in advance. I wanted to use my packaging moulds I created for the Ugly Sweater Tin Packaging and apply to both the red & blue "Hyannis" packaging as well as, adding a handle, lock and hinges to the briefcase for an extra slick application. Acting quick enough, my China connect could get me the tin packaging for the price of paper boxes like whoa. At the time, the Newbury street location for Concepts was being built and the guys were running thin to say the least, so working in these logistics proved to be a bit cumbersome with everything going on. The booth design was driven (pun intended) by Deon Point and his team at Concepts. I drove the design team at Concepts nuts with this project because I wanted to try some additional story telling tactics and funky printing and packaging applications that have still yet to see the market/industry. Time will tell. Time was and forever is, a burden in this industry and the marketing world in general. My favorite easter egg on this project was reversing the Concepts logo on the DesSables packaging to see if anybody would notice. I felt like things were a little stiff, and could use some "FuckYou" added back into the box. Check back for updates as 2017 progresses.