Does this mean anything – to you?
No person is born with a perspective. It is our lived experiences that shape who we are: where we spend our time, who took care of us, and what we were told we were.
No object is born with a meaning. It has a provenance. An objects meaning is instead, a record of what has happened to it. We give them meaning. The same object may mean the world to one person and something else to another.
To look at anything, then, is to read what it has been through.
What is shaping the situation?
01 Patina
Who we are can be defined by what we own.
Born in 1950s Boston, he grew up together with three brothers and a sister. At eighteen, he left home to attend college in New Jersey. He then moved to New York, where he married. Eventually, he returned to Boston, working at a financial services firm for over thirty years. After he retired, he played golf on weekends. He passed away in 2021, at sixty-eight.
Every day of those sixty-eight years, he chose what went in his pockets. Temporary checking cards, work badges, crumpled cash and transit passes become proof that he existed; the things he kept made him who he was.
left to right: the OG idea - meaningless cards, a result of where many people lived, and where they came from; found objects scanned; transcript of letter
How does meaning become fixed?
02 Non-toxic
The Crayon: Colorful. Neutral. Childish.
The Cigarette: Harmful. Adult. Oh, so, cool.
Darts▀ is a pack of twenty crayons in a flip-top box, with a smiley mascot named Dusty. Deluxe Bright▀ gives you the boldest, most vibrant picks from the stationery maker. Better shared with a friend. Call 1-800-▬▬▬▬ for your local retailer.
Crayons and cigarettes come from two very different worlds. Yet surprisingly, they have a lot in common: endlessly desirable, quickly consumable, so satisfying it's addictive, something to share, and just looks double tasty.
left to right: OG idea, all black; changing to a sad color selection; iterating on the idea of mascot; WIP box design (vibrant, later tuned less vibrant); printed labels on crayons; box creasing & folding
interactive 3D model built with AI assistance