Want Some Gum?…..

CHEW MY RUBBER BUM……COMICS!

I just had to do this considering how I am always trying to to package my art in some novel way suggesting candy and a visual chew. They are the size of a Double Bubble or Bazooka Joe and the comics page is one half of 8.5 x 11 in. To encourage the opening of this novelty (so many people like to keep my work in tact unopened which is understandable but then they are not enjoying the chew) I did not want to glue the sides of the wrapper to keep it closed so the idea of using the rubber band fits in well with the concept.

The Corner Grocery Store

  Winnipeg in the North End had a lot of corner grocery stores when I was growing up. Buying candy and chocolate bars to satisfy my sweet tooth was never more than a couple minute walk away.A lot of these stores had large hand painted 7-UP advertising murals on them. Now a lot of these corner stores have disappeared and/or the murals have long ago been painted over. 

  I was really missing them lately and I’ve always loved that late 60’s early 70’s graphic art style popularized by Peter Max. I was missing them so much so, that I painted one on the side of my garage.

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. 

OH! I would be So Happy!

I was sitting at a coffee shop before work and In the corner of my eye I saw the chocolate bar stand and the side of a box of Oh Henry chocolate bars. But I couldn’t believe my eyes as I saw the words SO Happy instead of Oh Henry. Brilliant I thought, what a great idea for them to do that. But when I actually looked, I saw it really ‘only’ said Oh Henry. 

And this got me thinking. It’s a great Idea. Now to sell them on it. (Hershey). Let’s make this happen!

So this is what I came up with by mimicking the current Oh Henry wrapper design.

Black Bart's Black Licorice

Large Box with 12 big cigar-sized pieces.

I can's seem to make candy without designing and making a package to go along with it.

Often, the idea to make something starts off as an idea for a christmas present for 

someone in particular.

 Bottom of box with Black Bart's head you can cut out. But who is gonna do that?

Aside from the large cigar sized pieces I made a variety of sizes and put them into small 

cellophane bags and designed a different package to put them in. The construction of 

which was based on an envelope.

Roca Poetry Vaisius Chew

I could not find any peppermint Roca in the city last year for a birthday gift so I had to make my own. And of course I can't make candy for gifting without designing and making my own packaging for it. I like how the single page packaging wrap works for the various shaped pieces, then a single sticker to hold it all closed and tight.
 

 My gals name is Jacque, hence the name Roca Jack.

 I know a friend named Andrew Vaisius 

who grew whiskers on his faceius.

                                                                  RP

My friend Andrew is a much better poet than I will ever be. You can chew on his word morsels for a long time. They kinda stick to your teeth though.

This is a little novelty packaging idea I came up with, perfect for a single shot of poetry when you need your next fix. No need to rush through a whole volume. Just chew on this for awhile. Then when you are ready, you can have another. Rot your mind, not your teeth.

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!

2-Color POP Box

I have a few old candy boxes and these pictured below are a couple of my favorites. I absolutely love the bygone era of simple graphics in the use of basic one or two-color design.   

Turkish Delight Box 5.5 x 9.75 x 3.25 inches

A turkish delight wrapper today. In a way it's really not that much different than the old.

Hershey's Almond box 5 x 7.5 x 2.25 inches

This is a very well crafted box and probably sturdier than need be for it's rather smallish size. The inner box also has printing on the sides that mirror what is on the outside box cover and the bottom of the box has a caution label that want the store owner to make sure to take care of their chocolate bars.

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.