From JeanR in Dec - Newberry - Part 4

Troy's Bonus Post was well received - I heard from a few people directly and there were a couple comments left. I hope this encourages Troy to submit some more stories. Also - this is a reminder to Troy that a few years ago, I tapped you as my blog-successor after I settle down for the inevitable dirt nap that I will be taking at some point.  FOJ - Fear of Jean - I'm still laughing.....

These are lovely swoops from JeanR. Swoop isn't the right word - but, I'm not coming up with better words - so we'll go with swoop. Once again - black and white and red - a stellar combination.

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Here is what I found at the very bottom of  the box of *papers.* I was expecting the box to be full of the random stuff that calligraphers collect. And I was right. There was no rhyme of reason to the order of the items. Half of them were interesting. They included many pieces with personal notes written from famous calligraphers like Sheila Waters and John Stevens. When I got to the bottom of the box, I found this:

There was nothing written on the back - no other insert with an explanation. It is definitely a deconstructed Kleenex box - and the sides were cropped, so it's not the whole box, but enough of it to tell what it had been. I held it up for my pen pal to see - and said, "As strange as this will sound, finding this in a box of someone's important papers - is close to being the highlight of this visit." 

I went on to explain that a long time ago, I had purchased (and hoarded) 4 of these actual boxes of Kleenex. They were on a shelf and I would periodically give them to people I knew who had a thing for old wooden type. Years ago, my file cabinets were chock full of stuff like this. 

It's possible the guy had designed the box or perhaps he owned the wooden type and a designer friend had borrowed it to photograph- so maybe there was some significance to it being in a box of important papers. Suffice it to say, it is always comforting to see ephemera that's been saved by someone else that makes me feel like the odd stuff that I collect is not all that odd. For those readers of this blog who are not graphic  designers - you might not realize that every single product that is for sale is packaged by someone who is mildly obsessed with fonts - as well as other things - but the packaging of products is a huge industry that is very much behind the scenes. 

Ironically - it was just last fall when I decided that it was silly to be saving my last box of wooden type Kleenex and I put it out - and used it up. It would have been fun to have a photo of my *hoarded* version of the box - but, I'm proud of myself that I've was able to part with my all time favorite Kleenex box.