I Could not resist....So Happy!

 

After my previous post with my Oh Henry / So Happy design, I could not resist making a full mock-up of the bar. It looks fabulous! Though, I do need to find a smaller ‘pinking shears’ for the zig zag cuts.

This past Friday I shared my idea with the Hershey Company. I really wish the internet didn’t make it impossible to actually talk to somebody at large companies. They did have a ‘share your ideas with us’ button to click on, which I used to submit my idea, but by doing so, I may have given up all rights to my fantastic idea, by having to agree with their 10 terms, which by the way I don’t agree to. It’s very unfair. I  don’t mind or care so much If I don’t get paid ( I have zillions of ideas per minute coming out of my cranium), as long as I get a years’ worth of Oh Henry! bars. And that’s a lot. It might be cheaper to pay me. 

D-N-Aid to the Rescue!

I was remembering the old packages of Lik-m-aid from when I was a kid, you know that colored, flavored sugar powder candy in an envelope pack. There have also been many variations like Pixy Stix and then I remember these plastic fruits with the powder inside, and then there were the packages that had a candy stick in a separate attached pouch so that you didn't have to get your finger all sticky, plus with the stick you got more candy.....more sugar. What those guys didn't do was make the stick into a candy finger.

I was also thinking about Kool-aid, sugar, artificial colors and the transformative powers of these items on our body and minds, though perhaps only temporary. But what if we take it a step further and rearrange a few deeper physiological and psychological attributes of our human form? Soon we will have the option to choose the body and mind of our children through the manipulation of their DNAs.

When I was creating the design and art for my D-N-Aid packages I had a specific era of design in my memory bank. It was vague and I have seen the packages here and there since but I did not want to look at them when it came time to design mine, I just wanted to work from my vague  recollections. This way, I would have something similar (hopefully) without copying or I could get something very unique if my memories were totally out the window. I had no memories of what the backs looked liked though so I just made something which was pleasing to me.

I wanted to do a rainbow of flavors which gave me the fun assignment of drawing different characters for the packages. Yeah there should have been at least one more woman. The doctor was going to be a woman but it just wasn't happening on the drawing board. In fact I actually started this project a year ago. I had the package design all done at that time, and I started drawing one of the charicatures, but It just wasn't the right touch I wanted, so I abandoned the project for the time until this past October, and somehow, all the characters just rolled off my mouse. (yes these are computer aided drawings done in adobe illustrator using the pencil tool and a mouse)

Here are a couple packs of the real stuff that I had when I was a kid as well as the Fun Dip candy that I remembered seeing but was already an adult to want any. Then below that I've included some older era Lik-m-aid package graphics. Enjoy!

FUN GUM TIME!

     It really is modeling clay and not gum. Though I suppose you can do this with gum but it would get dangerously sticky. But as it is now with the modeling clay, it's still dangerous because kids will just automatically eat this out of the package if they are not told because it really looks like gum. Not just the package but the clay as well. That's what gave me the idea for this.

     I was at a craft store with a friend and they wanted to see all the clay colors the store had to offer. When I saw the pink clay, a huge slab of bubble gum came to mind. (yeah, candy is always on the brain) "I should do up a package for some fake gum and put the clay in it. (Any excuse to do some graphic design.) But then I thought right away that it would be kind of dumb because what was the point of using something useful for an unuseful purpose? I would be wasting the clay for the sake of creating graphics and packaging for a fake gum. So, how can I turn this into an actual product? I wondered. Well, it already is modeling clay, So let's keep it as modeling clay but as a double bubble portion, to just fiddle with, and chew on with your fingers!

     It was super duper fun coming up with all the different inserts. Then of course, silk screening the pop display boxes and printing up a few 'what if' shipping boxes. What if I had a truck load of these. Those boxes you see below are unfortunately empty. I'll make just one box at a time. That's 60 pieces to cut out of the clay and wrap individually by hand. Yeah, they cost way more than 25 cents at this rate, but it's fun. It's something to give out or put in my Nakfactorium Gumball machine. And believe it or not, this photo below is not photoshopped. 

Here are some of the activity inserts. 1 of 30 different activities comes with each piece. There are also some fun facts as well.