Trading Card Wrappers: Disposable Genius

I'm a child of the 80's and for that I am forever grateful. In terms of pop culture, the 80's spawned some of the most enduring intellectual properties that have lived on to our current day. Transformers, Star Wars (I know the original was 1977, but still), He-Man, Thundercats, Tron, Dark Crystal, the list goes on and on.

One thing that went hand in hand with these IP's of the 1980's was trading cards. Every cool show or movie that came out had a line of trading cards to go with it. I remember my Mom and Dad taking me to the drug store a million times to buy ANOTHER pack of Dark Crystal and Tron trading cards in hope that I'd get the 2 cards I was still missing to complete the set.

Funny thing I never understood. There were times I had the compulsion to buy trading cards for things I had no interest in... Close Encounters, Rocky, Mork & Mindy, DUNE!

Why?

As a child I didn't know. But as an adult graphic designer and illustrator, I know exactly why. It was the dang awesome art on the waxpack wrapper.

The formula was simple. 1. Wax paper. 2. Mediocre to poorly drawn line art. 3. Three to four bright Spot colors with terrible registration.

That's all it was, but it was enough to stir joy in my soul enough to want them. A few months ago I went on Ebay and began repurchasing just the wrappers to study, and for inspiration to have on hand. And I'm so glad I did. The following are my own designs/my loving Homage to the Topps Waxpacks of days gone by. Enjoy!