A Collection a Day: packaging mockup
January 10, 2011 at 11:00 AM 
This is a mockup of the Collection a Day packaging.
It's a tin with a hinged lid.
The actual height is indicated by the edge of the white paper.
Ever since I asked Lisa if she would allow UPPERCASE to publish her A Collection a Day project as a book, I've envisioned it packaged in a special collector's tin. Throughout 2010, Lisa documented her various collections through daily photos on her project blog. It was an incredible idea, and one that she followed through on brilliantly. However, with the excitement of her daily posts behind us, I wanted to make something lasting, tactile, hefty, covetable... all the things that one cannot accomplish virtually. Since the project is all about the love of things, whether special treasures or mundane objects made meaningful en masse, the book version of A Collection a Day takes that exuberance to heart and becomes a desireable object in itself.
As a graphic designer, it has been a dream to try my hand at packaging — to think in three dimensions and imagine something in a material and production process that is new to me. I love the challenge. Imagine with me the mockup above with a glossy finish, and two levels of embossing on the decorative band, bread tags, 3-6-5 and the title. Imagine opening the hinged tin for the first time to discover a little block of a book and gently lifting it out. You can either keep your book in the tin, or (as I have imagined it) keep small collections of your own inside the tin. The memory of my grandmother's buttons kept in a cookie tin was my inspiration. I can still recall the wonderful racket a gentle shake would make!
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In case you didn't see this earlier, here's a quick video of the book block (the block is with the tin company, otherwise I would have photographed it with the cover design on it.) Imagine 448 pages of amazing objects, beautiful design and fine typography.
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