The Art Hustle box building

Boxes were printed, and I then drove the stack of printed sheets to our Die cutter.  This was my first time designing a die-cut pattern, and it worked out great.  I made the die cutter nervous, because I ran the total job out of order.  Normally, the die-cut pattern is made first, a die created, and it is tested with blank sheets.  A low pressure sheet is done, so that it has creases instead of cuts.  This creased sheet is then sent along with artwork to the printer, who uses both to position the artwork within the rectangular finished sheets.  I did this out of sequence, in that the artwork was printed onto stock sheets, and the die-cut created independently.  We skipped the test run, and positioning stage.  All bets were off if it would come together.  I was confident it would work, and in the end, it was fine.

Back at the Lab, we number stamp each box.  Promo boxes are numbered also, but are also labeled PROMO in green near the number.

Actual cards are glued to the tops of the boxes, one of the above 15.  There are 20 boxes for each card.

Finally, we fold and glue the four corners of each box.

10 packs of glued, flattened boxes.

wrapping Suckpax series 1 wax packs

All of the wax packs are hand folded.  A board holding the 36 stacks of 7 cards each are brought to the wrapping station, and crack trained personnel utilize the official folding method. This reproduces the set of creases and folds of the vintage (pre-1990) packs.

Before 1991, folded wax paper wrappers was the norm for trading cards.  Around 1990 the first cellophane wrapped packs started appearing, and soon the foil end crimp packs.  I have been on the hunt for an automatic folding machine, but have not found one yet.  The closest I have come is Chicago 1996.  I spoke with an executive with General Packaging, who said their last wrapping machine was broken up for scrap metal that year.

Mascot pet rock?

The rock is heated, and used to seal packs?

Zen contemplation object for mental health of folders?

Special insert?

After the 36 packs are wrapped, they go into the box.

Dealing out cards for Suckpax box

Each box contains 252 cards.  Before wrapping, we deal out the cards to go into one box onto a sorting board.  36 stacks, 7 cards per stack.  Care is taken to avoid duplicates within a pack, and to put special cards into the center of a pack-stack.

NYC visit

We’re starting up planning and pre-production for Suckpax Art Action series 2 card set.  I traveled down to Chinatown, New York City, to meet with The Sucklord.  We met at a local Dim Sum joint, and discussed plans for taking over the world special cards and features for the set.

On the way back, as I headed through Grand Central station, I saw a bunch of movie lights.  Law and Order was shooting a scene on the West staircase.  All the major characters were filmed racing into the station, stopping to peer over a balcony, and then down the stairs.