Custom Music Packaging for N.E.R.D.
When it came time to reunite N.E.R.D., band members Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, and Shay Haley decided they needed more than an average press junket to announce the second coming - they needed a custom music packaging promotion.
To usher in a new era while celebrating their legacy, N.E.R.D. teamed up with creative agency Five Hundred to launch a Virtual Reality (VR) music video. And that VR experience needed custom music packaging that was as bold and stylish as the band itself.
Functionally, this box performs its job with ease. A thumb cut provides access to the tray which slides fluidly out of the slipcase; you can imagine why this design is also called a Drawer-Style Box. Solid black chipboard from Newman & Company Inc. provides a sturdy structure, protecting the contents and providing crisp, rigid edges to the box.
But the first thing you notice about this box is the cartoon-ish outer wrap. Interstellar images appear unassumingly in the design; stars, planets, and various astral bodies. But surreal characters and objects also occupy the space adding a playful, offbeat element. Rainbow paper from Ecological Fibers in Black Antique lines the inside of the tray. The internal tray is wrapped in the same print that dons the external slipcase, and wholly new characters appear on the tray amidst the familiar starry background. No two images on this cool custom music packaging design are alike.
