For those who aren't lucky enough to get your hands on a copy of the new 826 catalog, The Dieline presents to you a series of posts containing packaging from each of the seven stores.
But first, a little back story from the catalog:
"Back in the fall of 2001, Dave Eggers and some friends and were looking to rent a space on Valencia Street in San Francisco’s Mission District. They planned to open an after-school tutoring center for the kids who lived in the neighborhood; it was a simple and only semi-formed notion. The plan was that the front of the building would be used for tutoring and workshops, and the back would house the offices of McSweeney’s, their small publishing house....
826 National is a network of youth tutoring and writing centers with locations in seven cities—San Francisco, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Boston, Chicago, Ann Arbor and Seattle. At the core of the organization is a dedication to helping students 6–18 with their English and writing skills. The idea when the organization started, back in 2002, was a simple one—provide one-on-one tutoring for students falling behind—but along the way there were some strange detours. Those detours led us to create odd storefronts that sold odder products—peg legs, robot emotions, caveman food, and space-travel underwear, among hundreds of other semi-useful things. How did this happen? And is this a good idea?
When they looked into the building they wanted to use at 826 Valencia Street, the landlord was open to the idea of a tutoring center, but he told Dave that the address was zoned for retail. They had no choice, the landlord said: at the front of the building, they had to sell something."
And so it began.
Today we've got products from 826 Valencia, the Pirate Supply Store.
See tons more after the jump, and keep your eyes peeled for even more packaging from this organization.
