And no, I'm not complaining... not exactly. I'm thrilled to have all this work and feeling very very lucky, considering the still-scary state of the economy, etc. 

I guess one of my complaints of late has been that I've "lost my muse" - I just haven't been feeling too creative. OK, some of this could be attributed to the fact that I've been designing (or rather "executing") some pretty boring crap, like instructions for a doorway pullup bar, a workout poster for a yoga ball, silhouetting photos of boat shoes and air beds and various other products that fall under my special category of "SSTNON" (Stupid Shit That No One Needs). 

One of my other complaints lately has been that ALL my projects (save one) have been EXTREME HOT RUSHES... meaning "I need this last week!!!" The funny kicker is that these people all want the Mona Lisa in 5 minutes for $1.98. Yeah... whatever (says the design whore as she gulps on her last drop of dignity... ha!)

But tonight - on this auspicious day of 09/09/09 - I had a minor creative flash again. Don't get excited - it wasn't that great, but it made me happy with a design for a change. 

The task was this: Do a "really quick" (meaning I guess I should just press a special button on my keyboard...) design for packaging for seriously cheap Chinese outdoor game items, like batminton sets and paddle ball sets and the like. My client called at 7:45 pm from his hotel "on the road" - he needs this for a meeting with a buyer in the morning, of course. Yeah... whatever.

So I did a quickie down & dirty design & mocked up the package photos... they were ok for the product & market (just barely), but I felt empty after firing off the emails with these proofs attached. I stepped out on to my little back porch oasis - had a smoke - cracked a Shock Top and started my process of daydreaming about the packages I had just designed... then it hit me. Earlier I had found a really cool vintage photo of 2 very serious looking turn-of-the-century (20th) men holding rackets and looking - well, very serious. I loved the irony of this - the product line is called "Pure Play" and the logo and type I've spec'd for this packaging are all very kid-like and totally not serious. 

So check out the new packaging that actually made me smile below:

Now - here's the funny kicker with this project. I'll lay big odds that the client goes with the previous "ho hum" design (see below). My client is relatively cool and has fairly good taste in some areas, but he is totally cowed by the buyers, as are all manufacturers who want to actually sell their products. So I understand that part. 

What I don't understand is the buyers sometimes. The reality for items such as the "Boom Boom Paddle Set" and the "Bashminton Set" are that the consumers making the buying decisions in stores for these things are NOT 3 year olds. Trust me - I had one (yes, 20 years ago...) and I know that the ONLY time a little kid drives a buying decision is when Barney or Elmo or whatever kiddie "flavor of the month" character is on the package... OR if the product has been so heavily pimped on TV that the package is instantly recognizable to the little consumer-tots.

No - these buying decisions are made by adults - pure and simple. They buy this crap because it's seriously cheap and looks like it could be "fun" for the kids - even if it's only for the few minutes it lasts before breaking. So my thinking is this - appeal to the ADULTS here, while keeping the theme "fun". My other thought is that this is totally the kind of item that an adult might buy as a gag gift for another adult - this is where the packaging is a serious help. I, myself am a long time sucker for that kind of thing - cool or at least interesting packaging on a dreadfully cheap and stupid product. I'm in!

OK - maybe my packaging suckerdom is because I'm a designer of the evil packaging... stuff that chokes our landfills, fells our trees, depletes our environment of good things, bla bla bla. Hey, somebody's got to do it. (and yes - I do have some limits: I won't design anything for any "violent" or otherwise hurtful industries and I won't knowingly put statements on a piece that are false, et. al.) I do also always try to encourage clients to print on recycled materials and use eco-friendly inks. Yeah, I try. Sometimes it works, so I guess that's sort of good.

So - yeah, I'll be curious to get the feedback on these designs. Again, I would almost bet the farm (if I had one) that they'll go with "boring" instead of "quirky", based on my 20+ years' experience with such things. Whatever. At least I'll get paid either way. (what a whore!)