How Can One Piece of Tape Cause so Many Problems?

It seems like a simple enough problem, almost innocuous. Our new shipment arrived from the factory this week with every box taped shut in three places instead of two. No big deal, right? Well, in fact that one piece of tape short circuited months and months of analysis, planning and design. One little, stinking piece of Scotch tape.

That additional piece of tape was used to secure the bookflap on our new bookfap boxes. The bookflap box was the solution to a problem that we had identified as a major issue for our first release, DidYa Know, two years ago. That game was packaged in an attractive tin can. The tin looked great and had a terrific embossed pattern and logo that gave it a substantial feel. There was only one problem, it was too small to print enough words to properly convey what was inside. Customers would be drawn to pick the package up from a shelf (a good thing), but could not understand what was inside within the 6-8 second window necessary. So, back on the shelf it went. Sales were disappointingly flat.

When it came time to design our new game line, we were faced with the quandry of how to convey the necessary messages without incurring the expense of and waste of an over-sized box. The solution was a bookflap style box. With this design we essentially doubled the amount of printable realestate without increasing the footprint of the box or utilizing wasteful clamshell packaging. Thanks to the great design work of Brigetta Cassar, we settled on a series of designs for all the games that achieved of our messaging objectives; include a sample of game content, the rules of the game, a photo of the contents and the game's audience.

As I opened the first of our newly produced games, I spotted the most painful looking 1/2 inch of cellophane and rubber adhesive I'd ever seen. There it was, sealing off half of all our hard work from the eyes of the public. Leaving us, essentially, where we started with the first DidYa Know games. Talk about painful. As I write this I am locked in a "negotiation" with the printing company (Yaquinto Printing of Dallas, TX) who is currently claiming ignorance and deflecting any responsibility for the error. This chapter will be continued...