I love to study packaging as design objects. To see how they influence our opinion and more importantly, our behaviour. In this regard, I feel shipping boxes don’t get nearly enough credit; the word utilitarian used almost as a pejorative.

I imagine it’s partly because of how many we get in a week (especially over the course of the pandemic). It’s why I wanted to take a minute to appreciate this tiny yet consequential piece of design – an inclusive incorporation of Maori symbolism that makes a humble shipping box that much more meaningful.

Looking at this immediately reminded me of Aaron Draplin’s love for ephemera. For those of you that don’t know, Draplin is a graphic designer from Portland, Oregon who’s (probably) best known for creating Field Notes (You can see how this brand of pocket notebooks was also born out of his insatiable love for good design in the small “stuff”)

I’ve recently lost my job as a copywriter. Since I knew it was coming, I decided to start a creative project as a way of distracting myself from the inevitable dread.

As I toyed with several ideas, I re-read a post on Austin Kleon’s blog about building a body of creative work by doing something small every day and not breaking the chain.

Inspired, I decided to start #boringmoviedescriptions over on my Instagram – a movie review made as boring as possible, every day for a whole year!

At the moment, my streak is just over 30 days long. But seeing those marks on a calendar, in an unbroken sequence, is one of the best representations of accomplishment I can think of. It also acts as a daily reminder that I don’t need the permission of a “creative” job to be creative every day.

(Note: If the dates on the calendar look off, it’s because that’s a 2019 Field Notes calendar. These little things come as freebies with new packs. Since I haven’t bought any new merch in 2021, I decided to recycle an old one. As a purely visual reference, it seems to be working out just fine.)