'Tis the Season for Seasons Past

With the holiday season ramping up and snow soon to be on its way, we've been in that contemplative mood that comes with family get togethers, shorter days, and knowing that most of the next half-dozen months will be spent indoors. That said, it seems like the perfect season to finally start sorting through all those boxes of miscellaneous photos, letters, and mementos tucked away in the basement or various drawers.

It seemed somehow fortuitous that we ran across this post from 2005 over at Ask Metafilter about what people do with their collections of old memories. Bringing it full circle is that someone recommended taking the time to scan these important pieces of your life and sticking it all onto discs, then going that extra mile by nicely packaging it using Jewelboxing. We'd seen this general idea put to great use in previous posts like with Andrew Huff's collection of his grandfather's audio interviews, Sujay Thomas' graduation discs, and Brendan Dawes' birthday memories. But to do a personal collection of your miscellaneous stuff, all searchable and safely tucked away in ones and zeros, that sounds fantastic. And while all that sorting sounds like a lot of work, it's the sort of thing that gets fun and interesting once you start doing it, taking it all in with eyes a little older and memories a touch fonder.

Here's to hoping there are lots of new memories being made that are worth preserving in your neck of the woods, as well as in Baltimore, Grand Rapids, Durham, Philadelphia, Leander, Lowell, Los Angeles, Kenton, Napa, Atlanta, Houston, Cardiff, Lakewood, Titusville, Livermore, San Louis Obispo, New York, Bellevue, Grand Forks, and Raleigh.

It's All the Talk in Delray Beach

When Jewelboxing user, Jess Kadar, sent in what she'd recently put together using our cases, it made us feel all warm and happy inside. That's not to say we're not always tingling with delight when we see Jewelboxing put to good use, but this was fine design plus it was as sweet as all get out. Here's the whole scoop, directly from Jess:

"I just have to say how much I love Jewelboxing and how well it's been working out for me. I bought the jb kit to make DVDs of my wedding pics, which worked out nicely. But what *really* impressed people was when I used Jewelboxing to package my grandma Ethel's 90th birthday video. (I had transferred 90 years of film and photos to DV and edited it into a tearjerking 20 minute film.) Now all the retirees in Delray Beach want to know where they can get a video like Ethel's.

I know it's not hard for a grandchild to impress her Jewish grandmother...but it IS hard to impress her friends who insist that their grandchildren are the best, smartest, most creative, etc. With Jewelboxing, it is indeed possible to silence them. I'd even say it's the next best thing to being (or marrying) a Jewish doctor."

We're positive there are friends of grandmothers being impressed like crazy in Pittsburgh, Arlington Heights, Toronto, Cincinnati, Eugene, Los Angeles, Villa Ridge, Cresskill, Chester, Houston, Valencia, Pasadena, Mountain View, Napa, Westborough, New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Providence, Portland, Monument, Mississauga, Rutland, Dunfermline, Minneapolis, and Bristol.

Well Taught

Phillip Chee, whose work we've featured before on two occasions over the past couple of years, is back at it, impressing us again. Previously, he'd used Jewelboxing to make his own soundtrack album for a film that never saw one released and packaging collections of his photography. Now he's apparently passing on his well-honed casing skills, as we see in his latest Flickr post of his daughter's first design, a mix disc of her own, using our King cases. And judging from the song selection, listed on the back cover, it looks as though Phillip is also passing along a great taste in music.

A big thanks to Phillip and his daughter for posting their great work and here's to hope the mix discs are looking and sounding just as great in Tuscaloosa, Imperial, Santa Monica, Spokane, Winter Park, Ft. Smith, Durango, South Pasadena, Downey, Kansas City, Bozeman, Farmington Hills, Flower Mound, Berkeley, London, West Palm Beach, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Littleton, Tacoma, Oakland, Oslo, and Honolulu.

Every Story Has a Case

A nice surprise to run across this post earlier today. Designer, filmmaker and the force behind the always terrific CreativeXpert podcast, Alan Houser, was kind enough to put together this entry on his blog, extolling the virtues of Jewelboxing. In the post, he shows off his work in a project he recently put together for a client ("While I don't normally 'do weddings, funerals and bar mitzvahs'", he writes, "I do on occasion produce photo DVDs for family, friends, and a few clients.")

Along with a great selection of photos, showing all the pieces he created to put into an assembled King case, he throws in some behind-the-scenes comments along the way. In one section, you'll see that he uses that great trick of lining the disc up with the inside tray image (Bryan here at Jewelboxing HQ made this great tutorial showing how you do just that). He also mentions that having a "stomper" to get the labels to fit onto the discs just-so isn't included in a standard Jewelboxing kit. While that's true, you can always add one into your shopping cart at checkout (we refer to it by its more technical name, the "Disc Label Applicator").

A million thanks to Alan for singing our praises and we're thrilled to see that his project worked out so well. Here's to hoping there are more thrills, thanks, and happy clients in Allston, Sterling Heights, Myerstown, Dallas, Paia, Manati, Fujimino-shi, London, Parkersburg, North Vancouver, Bountiful, Norman, Port Richey, Savannah, Los Angeles, Fredericksburg, Stockton, San Marcos, Landover, Boise, Leesburg, Fairfield, Powell, Toronto, Fall River, Paris, Chicago, Lake Zurich and St. Louis.

Connected Dots

It's here where we usually provide a short paragraph or two of introductory writing before we get into some writing from a Jewelboxing user. But because Phillip Chee is clearly a man with a lot to say, we've decided to pass the floor over to him right away:

"The concept that everything you do in your life is connected or related organically to all your experiences applies to me. To an outsider, my experiences and education may seem disconnected. I've done real science, studied philosophy, published, edited, designed, and currently have a computer geek's dream job. I've been employed by Fleming College in Peterborough, Ontario for a decade, and I'm currently the Computer Science Technologist, supporting programs in applied computing, computer security forensics, and health information management."

"One skill I've mastered is teaching cascading style sheets to neophyte web designers. During the past five years, I have been teaching continuing education (night school) courses in website design and web server technologies. I am a curious type and when something grabs my interest I immerse myself in it completely. In preparing for my classes, I read the web site A List Apart religiously for a couple of years for research. That's how I discovered Coudal Partners and the Jewelboxing system. I was impressed by the concept and the site design was rather cool, too. Unbelievably, I didn't actually purchase a Jewelboxing kit until just before last Christmas. I decided to do mix CDs as Christmas presents and the Jewelboxing system was the first and only solution I had in mind. I had just bought my daughter an iPod for her birthday and while playing with iTunes noticed the new Genius feature. The genesis for a number of mix CDs based on Genius was born."

"I've always had a creative urge and when I was a kid growing up I considered a career as an artist or graphic designer, as well as an astrophysicist. In the end I got a degree in biology at university. But now I use photography for my artistic urges. So I had a bunch of ready-made images to use with the templates and I chose the Photoshop templates since I regularly use the software. After a few minutes of studying the layers, I found it easy to work my design idea within it. Really, the hardest part was making sure the printer output would align properly, but I needn't have worried because the templates were a helpful guide. I printed a couple of tests and then made adjustments to the layer positioning to get it just right."

"Now that I have a foolproof system for creating a visually interesting package, it's one less thing I have to worry about when I go to create a portfolio for my photography. I began taking pictures when I was nine years-old and inherited my uncle's SLR when I was thirteen. It had a jammed shutter and he said it was mine to keep if I managed to get it fixed. Fortunately there was a camera repair shop a couple of blocks from my home. It was the best $22 I spent. The camera was not far from me wherever I moved during my university days and after graduation. While living in Montreal, I had my apartment broken into and lost the camera. It would take a dozen years for me to get back into photography when I bought a Nikon D70. In the last couple of years as I strove to improve my technique I trolled eBay for film cameras and have acquired a fine collection of classic Nikon F bodies and lenses. At the same time I rekindled my interest in astronomy and began making attempts at shooting astrophotography. Actually, I think my foray into astrophotography drove my search for the fastest, sharpest range of lenses for my collection. The more I did my research into old-school film astrophotography the more lenses I added to my growing collection."

"I'm at the point where I feel I am ready to mount an exhibition of my photographs. I'm still deciding on some themes but it will probably be a mix of my land and sky photos with a few shots of the Milky Way galaxy thrown in."

Thanks much to Phillip for sharing his story and here's to hoping things are being connecting organically in Hollywood, Laredo, Vancouver, Unionville, Hendersonville, Oak Park, Monroe, Davis, Richmond Hill, Los Angeles, South Haven, Toronto, Vars, Montral, Phoenix, Madison, Winnipeg, Mississauga, Vancouver, Santa Maria, Venice, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Kirtland Hills.

Misty Water-Colored Memories

With winter coming soon and being outdoors no longer an option, it was recently decided around the home front that this was going to be the season of cleaning up the basement once and for all. With the snows coming, the plan to to finally start sorting through all those boxes of miscellaneous photos, letters, and those odd little mementos that don't quite work so hot with the decor upstairs among the living. But in the end, even after weekends are spent reorganizing, you might wind up with a few less boxes, but all of that stuff will still be sitting down there, gathering dust.

It seemed somehow fortuitous that we ran across this post from 2005 over at Ask Metafilter about what people do with their collections of old memories. Bringing it full circle is that someone recommended taking the time to scan these important pieces of your life and sticking it all onto discs, then going that extra mile by nicely packaging it using Jewelboxing. We'd seen this general idea put to great use in previous posts like with Andrew Huff's collection of his grandfather's audio interviews, Sujay Thomas' graduation discs, and Brendan Dawes' birthday memories. But to do a personal collection of all your miscellaneous stuff, all searchable and safely tucked away in ones and zeros, that sounds fantastic. If just to provide inspiration so that we might do the same when it comes time to head downstairs to start the organizing, we'd love to see how it all turned out and hear your story, so if you've done such a thing, drop us a line and let us know.

Here's to hoping memories are being made and preserved in Brooklyn, Longwood, New York, Anacortes, Pasadena, Las Vegas, Madison, Toms River, Brea, Palo Alto, Oxford, London, Savannah, Blacksburg, Washington DC, Wetumpka, Drouin, Newmarket, Knoxville, Logan, Chicago, Toronto, Metairie, and Merrifield.

A Quick Jewelboxing Run in Less Than Twelve-Parsecs

A post to fall into that "what are we Jewelboxing?" category, here's a cover Jim made for his son Spencer's recent birthday party. They took a troop of his friends out to play laser tag and each of the little Jedis received a disc full of music, packaged in Jewelboxing Kings, of course:

A happy birthday to Spencer and here's to hoping that the Laser Battles conclude soon so that peace and order is restored throughout the Republic, particularly in Armadale, San Ramon, Rosemont, Allston, Riverview, Lubbock, Asheville, Athens, Springfield, London, Haslemere, Maribor, Dallas, Ilford, Chicago, Salem, West Henrietta, Highland, Draper, Los Angeles, Orlando, Petaling Jaya, Salt Lake City, and Tatooine.

Going the Distance

We have a soft spot for people in long distance relationships here at Jewelboxing HQ. In seeing friends who have decided to court from afar and having collectively been in a few ourselves over the years (including one that resulted in an experiment involving ABBA's "Dancing Queen"), we understand how much effort it takes in making it work. So we were happy to hear that our cases had become part of that effort on behalf of Hamish Macpherson who wrote us about a project he was working on to help keep those fires o' love burning strong:

"I just finished and sent off my first Jewelboxing project, so I thought I'd share what I came up with. It was a CD for my wonderful girlfriend Talia. Right now we're in a long distance relationship, so I had the idea of making a CD for her while I'm far away. I remembered seeing Jewelboxing before, but at the time I couldn't find a legitamte use for it. But not anymore! I ordered a pack of Kings right away and got to work as soon as they arrived (in fact, I had started designing before they came). I was really surprised at just how easy it was to print, punch out, and put together, and I was even happier with the results. Thanks for making this project a success! I look forward to Jewelboxing again in the future."

Thanks much to Hamish for sharing his story with us and here's to hoping there's love in the air (and maybe in the mail, too) in Evanston, San Diego, Toronto, San Francisco, London, Ruston, Los Angeles, West Monroe, Manchester, Bonaire, Carmel, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, Jersey City, Berkeley, Conroe, Tulsa, La Crosse, Wickliffe, Brooklyn, and East Patchogue.

Past Preservation

It's always cool when you learn something new about a friend. You think you know them pretty well, but then they surprise you with something they've never mentioned before, like "I won the state archery championship in high school" or "I just finished writing my first novel. It's about bees, which I've been utterly fascinated by since childhood." Such was the case with our good friend Andrew Huff, who has not only been a web ally over at Gaper's Block, but has helped us over the years with projects of ours like Layer Tennis and The Show, as well as coming along with us on more than a couple of trips to the bar. But until recently, we didn't know about a project he'd used Jewelboxing for and once we'd heard all the details, we asked him if he wouldn't mind sharing them on the blog. He agreed and so here's the whole story from Andrew himself:

"At Christmas in 2001, I brought a mini-casette recorder out to my grandparents' house in Scottsdale, Arizona, to interview them about their youth. My grandmother was born in Italy and immigrated to the US when she was 8, passing through Ellis Island on her way to Chicago. My grandfather was born here, fought in the Pacific Theater during World War II, and came home to jobs ranging from running a small trucking firm to working for the City of Chicago's Recorder of Deeds to owning a nightclub. He was the single best storyteller I've ever known, and their life together was so rich that I wanted to make sure at least part of it was recorded for posterity.

"I recorded about three hours of tape that Christmas. In between stories of my grandparents' childhood in Chicago's Little Italy, their courtship and my grandfather's experiences in Guadal Canal and after, I also captured the rest of the family filling in details and asking questions. On one tape, my grandmother walks through the steps of making stuffed artichokes, and then we talk about life after marriage, the move from the Old Neighborhood, and grandpa's trucking company and the uniform company he drove for for 20 years.

"In 2003, I brought my recorder with me again. This time, it was to record my grandfather one more time: he was in the last stages of lung cancer, so it was one last opportunity to ask him questions. He told me about the bar he ran, and about the move to Arizona in the early '90s. Three weeks later, he passed away.

"The tapes sat in my office for several years, until my grandmother expressed interest in hearing them again. That spurred me to finally have them digitized. As I prepared the files for Grandma, I realized that the rest of the family would be interested in copies, too. So a grand Christmas present project was hatched.

"I knew right off the bat that I wanted to use Jewelboxing cases for the CDs. They're beautiful presentation pieces, and the custom templates allowed me to easily create nicely designed inserts for them. I scanned photos from my mother and my collection, produced layouts in Photoshop using the templates, and printed them up. Unfortunately, I ran out of time before Christmas to actually burn the CDs. Fortunately, I was able to print the CD labels and take them with me, burning the discs and slapping on labels while listening to the recordings with my grandmother.

"The four-CD set turned out beautifully, and fits perfectly on the shelf alongside DVDs and books. My family loved the gift, of course. I'm looking forward to repeating the project with my dad's side of the family this summer."

Thanks very much to Andrew and here's to hoping for a few surprises in Arlington, Austin, Cupertino, Orsay, Launceston, Lexington, Mountain View, Old Buckenham, Belfast, Wimbledon, Surbiton, Berkeley, Oslo, Guildford, Burbank, Chicago, Brooklyn, Montreal, Meerbusch, Great Neck, Richmond, Tonsberg, New York, Woburn, Elk Grove, London, Amsterdam, Seattle, Helsinki, Stockbridge, Bonita Springs, and Edmonton.

Every Nook and Cranny

We have a soft spot for people who use the spines of Jewelboxing cases. Among a whole slew of miscellaneous objects, we've seen pieces of wood, ball bearings, confetti and mini glow sticks. If you visit our FAQ page about the system, you'll even see an illustration we put together warning that, while the spine is good for putting most anything, things like milk or fire ants probably aren't such a good idea. So it was a case of case-love-at-first-sight when Megan Rucker a designer at the University of Texas at Austin told us about a project she and her colleagues recently put together:

"A coworker on our graphics team was leaving and we wanted to give him something. We all submitted a song or two for his going away CD."

"I used Jewelboxing after reading about it from someplace cool. I can't remember where now, but one of the cool kids out on the internets was talking 'bout it. I was impressed after visiting Jewelboxing website -- it looked easy enough and I enjoy designing for these types of things. Once I received the box from you, the fun began. It was a very enjoyable project and made even easier with Jewelboxing templates (because I'm pretty lame at lining stuff up to print out right)."

"I put the twigs in the spine after I saw an example on your website of someone putting something in there -- oh yeah, it was M&Ms, I think. Andy is a nature kind of guy and it seemed appropriate. Although later, another coworker said she could think of something he likes even more and that would fit in there nicely too. Ha!"

Let's hope there's lots of random things being trimmed, controlled substances or otherwise, to fit just right in Chicago, Reston, Stonington (which we refuse to make an immediate callback joke about), New York, Fresno, Hagerstown, Newbury Park, Bayville, Toronto, Los Angeles, Knoxville, Loomis, Peterborough, Washington DC, Woodstock, Charlotte, San Francisco, Worcester, Santa Monica, Bethesda, Shakopee, St. Valentin and Copenhagen.

Thanks for the (Case of) Memories

It's graduation time around, well, everywhere really. And with that usually comes some traffic our way with the need for something to package reels, portfolios, and whatever else students are hoping will land them that great gig. Ivan Brezak Brkan from Zagreb wanted to use his cases a little differently. After years of good times with his friends, he wanted to put together a proper send off, to make sure every one of them could hold onto all those memories they shared. Here's the whole scoop:

"I'm just finishing college and I know I won't see a lot of my friends from my class for a long time, which is quite sad when you think about it (in Croatia, each generation has 4-5 classes of 25-30 people). Anyways, we had a lot of fun in "our time" so I wanted to make something special, and decided on an interactive dvd with photos from our various "adventures" such as the trips to Dublin and Graz. Knowing it had to be perfect, I didn't want to use any old case, so the logical step was to go with the Jewelboxing system which I heard was really practical and high quality. I have to say that the process of making the cases, from Photoshop to print, was quite enjoyable and I would recommend these outstanding cases to anyone who wants quality to be the essence of not only their content, but their packaging as well. My peers were happy with the results and now these cases will hold memories of one of the most enjoyable periods in my life."

"P.S. Well designed Jewelboxing cases go great with roses, as the ladies love the extra thought."

We're going to test out Ivan's case-with-roses theory immediately, so be expecting a flower delivery person on your door shortly if you live in Atlanta, Marathon, Winston-Salem, Greenwich, Toronto, Dillsburg, New York, Calgary, Los Angeles, Louisville, Valencia, San Francisco, Remscheid, Chicago, Schenectady, Vancouver, Santa Monica, Portland, Little Rock, Dearborn, Detroit, Stamford, Logan, or Ottawa.

It's All The Talk in Delray Beach

When Jewelboxing user, Jess Kadar, sent in what she'd recently put together using our cases, it made us feel all warm and happy inside. That's not to say we're not always tingling with delight when we see Jewelboxing put to good use, but this was fine design plus it was as sweet as all get out. Here's the whole scoop, directly from Jess:

"I just have to say how much I love Jewelboxing and how well it's been working out for me. I bought the jb kit to make DVDs of my wedding pics, which worked out nicely. But what *really* impressed people was when I used Jewelboxing to package my grandma Ethel's 90th birthday video. (I had transferred 90 years of film and photos to DV and edited it into a tearjerking 20 minute film.) Now all the retirees in Delray Beach want to know where they can get a video like Ethel's.

I know it's not hard for a grandchild to impress her Jewish grandmother...but it IS hard to impress her friends who insist that their grandchildren are the best, smartest, most creative, etc. With Jewelboxing, it is indeed possible to silence them. I'd even say it's the next best thing to being (or marrying) a Jewish doctor."

We're positive there are friends of grandmothers being impressed like crazy in Pittsburgh, Arlington Heights, Toronto, Cincinnati, Eugene, Los Angeles, Villa Ridge, Cresskill, Chester, Houston, Valencia, Pasadena, Mountain View, Napa, Westborough, New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Providence, Portland, Monument, Mississauga, Rutland, Dunfermline, Minneapolis, and Bristol.

Documenting Good Design

Over the last couple of days, we've been talking with LA-based photographer, Brandon Moreles about a project he recently finished up using Jewelboxing. As is often the case (pun!), we were introduced to Brandon's work when he sent over a photo of his project, all dressed up extra fancy in a set of Jewelboxing kings. His cover really impressed the whole lot of us, as did the interior. And when he sent over some links to his work, that sealed the deal. Here's Brandon's scoop on the project:

"I'm a photographer based out of California particularly keen on long term documentary projects. This one, titled 'LA DANZA' is a documentary project on Native American dancers shot over the last few years throughout California. I chose Jewelboxing for this project mainly because most of the DVDs were going to a lot of different people I shot over the years and the king cases gave then that slightly more sleek, stand-out, professional look you don't see often enough in packaging.

You'll quite often find that sleek, stand-out, professional look among the fine people in Moorestown, Menlo Park, New York, St. Augustine, Encinitas, Needham, Dallas, Irvine, San Francisco, Newtownabbey, St. Louis, Seattle, Chicago, Honolulu, Washington, Brooklyn, Crystal Lake, Pompano Beach, Elmont, Bend, Mississauga, Atlanta, Coronado, Irvington, San Juan, Basingstoke, Monroe, Potomac, Vancouver, Nashua, Venice, Schaumburg, Perth, and Burnaby.

Segura On Display

Carlos Segura is probably a name you're familiar with. Whether it's from the work of his influential design firm, Segura Inc., just down the street from us here into Chicago, or from one of the successful other projects he's created, like T-26, a digital type foundry, or 5inch, an online store that sells amazing, predesigned blank CDRs and DVDs. If you're a Corbis customer, there's a good chance you're all the more familiar with his work from this year's awe-inspiring, gigantic, poster-sized catalog called "Crop," to collateral material like mugs and calendars, to some of the coolest promo posters you'll ever lay your eyes on. And to continue this unending streak of fantastic work for the stock company, Segura has assembled a design, using Jewelboxing, to showcase Corbis' Digital Gallery collection. In his own words, describing the product: "This limited usage collection from Corbis is specific to licensing for displays on flat screen TVs in lobbies, offices, stores, homes or any other digital display." Really cool, without a doubt, and we're happy to be a part of it all (on the casing side at least).

We think Carlos' Corbis disc demands optimal viewing, so were standing in line at 4am on the Friday morning after Thanksgiving so we could buy 60" plasma tvs for everyone in Los Angeles, Via del Mar, Portland, Chicago, Seattle, Arlington Heights, Denver, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Alhambra, Malibu, Culver City, San Diego, Mount Juliet, Stow, Sanford, Hoover, Oklahoma City, Lakslev, Norfolk, Verona, Nicholasville, Seattle, Chaska, Greenville, Houston, Franklin, San Lorenzo, Minneapolis, Nazareth, and Abilene.

Trophy Cases

Well here's a new one on two fronts. Last week we got a flat package in from Stephen Allen and upon opening it, we found that it contained a sample of the case he recently put together...minus the case. He'd sent us two printed sheets, the cover booklet and the tray liner. It looked terrific as it was, but we knew it would look fantastic in its intended place. So we popped all the tabs out, did up all the folds, and plopped it right into a Jewelboxing case. And viola, it was terrific!

The second new-ness of it all, is what Stephen Allen is packaging with the Jewelboxing system. We've had plenty of photographers use the cases to promote their work before, but Stephen is a kind of photographer that works in one specific field: college and prep schools. After assembling the case, we popped onto his website and, besides enjoying the site's interface, browsed around in his gallery. And sure enough, there they all were. Stunning photos of students, teachers, classrooms, etc. Who'd have thought? And what's more, it made his Jewelboxing design, with photos of an inexpensive silver trophy, make perfect, clever sense.

Note: That really sweet offer that we made in the last Infrequent Mailing ends on Friday. Wanna get in on the next one? Join the list on the JB Home page.

We are buying lots of inexpensive silver trophies, inscribed "Best Jewelboxing Customers Ever," for the people in Irvine, New York, Toronto, Gosport, North Shields, Austin, Tracy, Warren, Santa Barbara, Stanley, Minneapolis, Sydney, Chicago, Flushing, Inverness, Lanoka Harbor, Tawau, Woodside, Hollywood, Londo, Radcliff, Westfield, Rockville Centre, Sioux Falls, Garfield Heights, San Jose, Bethlehem, Pasadena, Indianapolis, Vioa del Mar, Thunder Bay, Gold Beach, Vars, Mission, and Pittsburgh.

Byrd's Theory

After seeing Kevin Byrd's brilliant work in the first issue of JPG Magazine, we knew he was someone to keep an eye on. A visit to his terrific blog once a day goes without saying, and you'll see many a "via" linked back to his site on Fresh Signals. And, along with his brother Aaron Byrd, he's continued to keep scoring points with us by using Jewelboxing to package a short film he put together earlier in the year, "The Cycle Theory." It's a clever piece of work, with some of the best use of animated asides you'll probably ever see. It's well worth your time.

But back to this story: we were browsing around this morning on his Flickr account, looking at another project he's right in the midst of when we found the limited-edition DVD Aaron had assembled for the movie. The thought process went like this: 1) "Hey, wow, that's a really cool design." 2) Several seconds to process information and make connections, and then 3) "Oh, hey, he's using Jewelboxing!" So as familiar as we are with the Jewelboxing cases, as many times as we've shrink wrapped for hours, packaged dozens of hundred packs, and even made cases for our own projects, this morning proved to us that that first "hey, that's really cool" impression still works. It's extra effective when you've got a film like Kevin's and a designer like Aaron manning the helm.

Things are being made that will also bewilder and amaze us by the people in Newton Heights, Middleboro, Wilmington, Phoenix, Clermont, Spring Valley, Dallas, Hoboken, Los Angeles, Moreno Valley, New York, Austin, Cincinnati, San Diego, Indianapolis, Venice, Hacienda Heights, Longmont, Eastchester, Kingston, El Cajon, Roxbury Crossing, Raleigh, Toronto, York, Santa Monica, Fredrick, Pennsauken, Seattle, and London.

The Best Phrase. Ever.

Since we started, people have said a lot of nice things about Jewelboxing. However, we're pretty sure that, when Signe Housser wrote in to us to tell us about the project she'd just completed with the Vancouver Public Library, it was the first time we'd been referred to as "freakin' awesome." So, understandably, we were thrilled. And once we got a look at how Signe's project turned out, we, in turn, thought the work of her designer put together was equally as freakin' awesome. Here's her letter:

The Science & Business Division of the Vancouver Public Library has been publishing print versions of our New Media Directory for six years. This is a company directory of new media firms in the greater Vancouver area intended primarily for job seekers. As you probably know, Vancouver is a gaming and interactive entertainment hotbed, not to mention a pretty beautiful place and the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

When it came time to produce a CD version of our Directory, we wanted a simple, elegant, all-in-one packaging system to do it justice. Your product exceeded all expectations. We love it! And our designer specifically wants you to know that he thought the system was freakin awesome.

Since we're on a roll here, we'd like to take this moment to say that there are some of the freakin' awesomest people in Merthyr Tydfil, Leominster, Atlanta, Decatur, Sandpoint, London, Austell, Sanford, Brooklyn, New York, Toronto, Silver Spring, Alexandria, Truro, Buffalo Grove, Plano, Salinas, Grafton, San Diego, Alameda, Ekero, Ankara, Hoboken, Maidstone, and Urbana.

Attend Two and Call Us In the Morning

It's always cool when someone sends in a project to us that's really unique from anything else we've ever received. That happened this week when we got a package in from Carole Guevin. Of course, the design she used to dress up the Jewelboxing pack was the first thing to catch our eye (after all, we're all designers ourselves). But when we got into the workshop Carole had prepared, that really got us interested. Here's some info from Carole:

“The workshop is called Real PILLs, an acronym for: “Powerful Instant Latency Lot of Suggestions.” The workshop combines 2.5 years of private coaching and my 20 year experience as a designer. The whole idea is to put attendees in a situation where they face a succession of rapid and unpredictable twist and turns on a specific assignment (the pitch). The exercises mimic the flow of changes experienced in a real life project and helps to discover that uncontrollable changes and constraints are opportunities to evaluate their creative strengths, adaptability, potential and areas of improvement.

The theoretic aspects are passed on seamlessly with the intense hands-on situations. The order of the day was to introduce complete chaos to the attendees and let them learn how to stay on top of it and deliver. Which they did!

After the workshop, the group Photoshop files are posted to download and can be burned to a CD. The beauty of this concept, resides in the fact that having participated anonymously, they can now view and criticize the work of everyone, gaining new insights into what they have learned, shared and experienced over the course of the workshop and the Jewelboxing becomes way more than just a souvenir.”

UPDATE: Carole just dropped us a line to let us know that the PILLS workshop may be hitting the road soon and visit a batch of cities near you. For more info, contact Carole.

We'd like to get comp tickets to Carole's workshop for our new pals in London, New York, Calgary, North Chatham, Vancouver, Indianapolis, Coeur d'Alene, Blue Grass, New York, Brooklyn, Corvallis, Fresno, Arcadi, Van Nuys, Washington DC, Amsterdam, Clarksville, Summerland, and Singapore.

The Top of Portfolio Mountain

Along with the already-employed's search for better and brighter positions, it's also graduation time around the world and with all of that comes mailboxes full of reels, demos, and everything in between. It's those that arrive on desks that stick out and make an impression that leads to landing jobs. Vanessa Harper, a Creative Director by trade, who just finished up with a design program in Orlando, Florida, sent us a copy of her portfolio, and based on what we saw, we're pretty confident it's the kind of work that'll take her very far. Heck, just based on her Jewelboxing design, it proves she knows her stuff.

We know they're receiving dream job offers every day in Iver, Seattle, Snohomish, Baltimore, Kennesaw, Boulder, Limehouse, Duncton, Nottingham, Savannah, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Boca Raton, Tempe, New York, Astoria, Cambridge, Lawrenceburg, Evansville, Atlanta, Hoboken, Seneca, and San Mateo.

Un Cas de L'Amour

We were understandably thrilled when we got this letter from Robert Pennino, who put together a Valentine's gift using the Jewelboxing system. After all, it's one thing to impress a client -- it's something all together more important when l'amour is involved.

"Thank you for your great product. I just finished this personal project. I created a DVD with all the best pictures of my girlfriend and I since we've been together. It's called 'Three Years And A Half,' because, obviously, we have been together for that long. The theme for the packaging was nature and purity. Inside, I added leftover shavings from a pencil that I had sharpened. Anyway, when I surprised her with the DVD, she really loved it. It's much more interesting than a cheesy 'I love you' card."

Our hearts race and our knees get wobbly when we think of those in Chicago, Greensboro, Salt Lake City, Bozeman, Redding, Grand Ledge, San Antonio, Greenville, Montreal, and San Francisco.

We Get Letters, and Jpgs Too

Don Bambico writes. "When I first saw your Jewelboxing system, I simply fell in love with the freedom to design all around the case thus making it very eye catching. Having been stuck designing on those boring DVD amaray cases, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try and create something slick with your Jewelboxing system."

"So in an attempt to attract prospective employers and also for graduate school admissions, I used the Jewelboxing system and created my very own portfolio cd-rom. I must say that I am extremely satisfied and very happy with the outcome. Thank you Jewelboxing Crew, you guys rock!"

The parade of cities continues in a increasingly futile attempt to get caught up before vacation. Thanks to London, Westfield, LA, Miami, Charlotte, Burbank, Heemstede, Amsterdam, Venice, Golden Valley, Lincoln, Schaumburg, Winnipeg, NYC, Stockton-on-Tees, Lombard, South San Francisco, Atlanta, Stratford, Richmond and Phoenix.

See you after Labor Day. Keep Jewelboxing.

This Is Your Life

So your friend is turning 40. You've got a large stash of quasi-embarrassing photos and even a few home movies. Make him a disc of his life so far. That's what Brendan did.

Thanks to the forward-thinking people of LA, Milwaukee, Roanoke, Brighton, Southampton, Roswell, Atlanta, Houston, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Vaud and Woodstock. We love you.

Other Things You Can Do With Paper

We've added Santamaria's sleek new showreel to our Examples + Inspirations section and Juergen and company were nice enough to allow us to share this amazing piece of animation with you.

We'll get caught up on these mentions soon. Starting with the upstanding citizens of Miami, Flintridge, Kennesaw, Seattle, Toronto, Lilburn, Bedfordshire, Elroy, West Orange, NYC, LA and Davie.