Posts tagged 'production':

Second wave begun

July 23, 2010 - no comments. Posted by in The Art Hustle 1.

We’re building the second wave of 100 boxes.

collating cards

Collating cards for boxes 101-200.

2nd wave boxes

boxes 101 to 107.

The Art Hustle box building

July 22, 2010 - no comments. Posted by in The Art Hustle 1.

the art hustle boxes die cutting

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.

number stamping boxes

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

the art hustle box tops

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

glueing up boxes

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

finished flattened boxes

10 packs of glued, flattened boxes.

wrapping Suckpax series 1 wax packs

July 21, 2010 - no comments. Posted by in Suckpax 1.

wrapping 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.

suckpax

Mascot pet rock?

The rock is heated, and used to seal packs?

Zen contemplation object for mental health of folders?

Special insert?

boxing up suckpax

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

Dealing out cards for Suckpax box

July 20, 2010 - no comments. Posted by in Suckpax 1.

Suckpax 1 cards

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.

The Art Hustle series 1 production schedule

July 15, 2010 - no comments. Posted by in The Art Hustle 1.

This limited edition of 300 numbered boxes is being released in three waves of 100 boxes.

The first wave of 100 boxes is almost sold out, 50 going to stores and 50 for direct sales.

The next wave will drop in August, again 50 to stores and 50 for purchases from the website.

The final wave of 100 will be released in September.

first wave of boxes

If you have any sort of compulsive quality, you  will have already counted up the boxes in the photo, and noticed a total of 109.  In the foreground are 9 promotional boxes.

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