Any beleaguered parent that’s done the toy-store shuffle with their advertising-savvy progeny knows that helpless feeling, that sinking sensation that starts in the pit of your stomach the moment you glimpse those eye-catching items of doom on the store shelves: brand-new stockpiles of the latest, greatest video game.

Now, as a member of the pre-Atari 2600 generation (or maybe Atari was as advanced as it got when you were of prime game-playing age), you may be able to differentiate a joystick from a stick shift, but you’re still clueless about what a cheat code is or which console is the ultimate in gaming satisfaction. And since you’re the one with the cold hard cash that will be coughed up to purchase said digital diversion, you’re forced to rely on three factors when making the big purchase: the advice of your conniving kids, the price tag, and, suckers that we all are for appearances, the product packaging.

When video-game giant Sega decided to bundle its popular Dreamcast console with its 12 “greatest hits” games for a bargain-basement price, it needed an upgrade for its box design. Enter Mires, a full-service design firm that incorporates brand strategy, identity and interactive design into its packaging design process. Digital Imaging talked to Mires creative director and principal John Ball, marketing director Tom Carroll and art director Miguel Perez to get to the bottom of their design efforts for this special “Smashpack” concept.

The Initial Test: Concocting a Concept: The original project completed by Mires for Sega came down the pipeline in the fall of 2000, according to Ball. “Sega came to us to help them create packaging for Dream cast, which was their gaming console at the time,” he says. “We did an original series of packaging and a bunch of accessories for Dreamcast.” This package was released around Christmas of that year.

Changing economies and stepped-up competition led Sega to rethink its strategy in the industry, and it decided to transition to being a software company, getting hardware out of its system. To sell its remaining Dreamcast consoles and accompanying software, the company decided to create a series of bundled packages, which would include the console and a bunch of games. “In the case of the Smashpack, you’d get 12 games,” says Ball. “You’d get what they considered their 12 greatest games, plus the hardware, all at a great price.”

Hence the challenge for Mires in concocting its design strategy: How could they take this “mishmash” of artwork from all the various games, all in different styles, resolutions and qualities, and come up with a unified approach, while still maintaining the family-friendly look of the previous packaging? Plus, the designers didn’t want to go into overkill mode: “That kind of packet, with its immediacy, you’re trying to show it’s a great value,” says Ball. “ If you don’t do that well, it can look real busy and too cheap. That was the real challenge—to give it that action-packed, value-packed feeling, but not cheapen the brand.”

After going over research from Sega and its design options, a plan was formulated. “We came up with the idea of letting the characters from the games take over the box,” reveals Ball. “We worked through some different compositions, but we really tried to go with the concept of them taking over the whole box. You can also see the original hardware that was on the original box, which carries some of the correlation of the original box. So basically we worked on creating a composition and optimizing all the different images so they’d reproduce well and really making it seem real. That was one of the successful things about this visually.”

From Mishmash to Maintaining the Brand: Sega sent over electronic files for Mires to work with, which presented its own lot of aesthetic problems. “They were very poor quality—the color was really bad,” Ball recalls. “If you look at the original images, a lot of the images were cut off. It was quite a challenge to figure out an arrangement that would help us in [these cases]. In the case of the guy with the sword, for example, that’s pretty much as much of the image we had. We added some sword in Photoshop because part of the sword was gone.” After all the finagling was done in Photoshop to optimize the colorful characters, the other crucial elements were added in, including the Dreamcast swirl, the limited-edition logo and the 56k modem logo.

Color’s role was also critical. “The initial coloring [of the original box] was a black and cyan kind of look, plus the Dreamcast swirl,” says Ball. “More color [was added], which gives it that vibrancy and pop, but the base color is still that strong cyan color we established for Dreamcast.”

When it came time to print the projects, Sega used the Mires design in a somewhat unusual but creative way. “In this case they did something kind of innovative,” Ball says. “They printed the box, and it was a type of wrap around the original box. [The new version] was printed on tagboard, and was boxed over the original box, which was more of a stronger, corrugated box. So you’d open this [new] box and you’d take out the original box. The fact that they’re related, and that the hardware is the same photo—you think you’re taking away the characters and seeing the original box, which was kind of cool.” The concept was a success: Ball says they heard from Sega that sales of the package were great and Mires has taken on a few more bundling assignments since then from the video-game company.

Mired In A Soup-To-Nuts Strategy: Not a Bad Place to Be: Mires, based in San Diego, was initially founded in 1985 by Scott Mires as a small design boutique. In the 18 years since, the company has evolved into more of a brand-consulting firm, offering strategic design and brand consulting to clients such as the NBA, Pepsi and Qualcomm. “It’s really much more than just designers,” says marketing director Tom Carroll. “We have designers, brand strategists, project managers and traffic associates helping manage workflow. We do a lot more than just packaging. We have brand strategy, packing collateral, corporate identities, the whole thing, with the exception of advertising.” Principals in the company include Mires, John Ball and Jose Serrano.