Leah Wild

A recent NPR story profiled an intriguing artist and entrepreneur named Justin Gignac. In that story, titled: “Treasure or Trash? Artist Says It’s in the Packaging”, Gignac puts forth a persuasive argument. While an intern at MTV, Gignac relates that he engaged in a discussion with his fellow workers. One of them expressed the opinion that “. . .they thought package design wasn’t important”, according to Gignac.

That made Gignac rise to the challenge. “So I figured the only way to prove them wrong would be to try to package something that absolutely nobody in their right mind would ever want to buy.” Garbage.

That was a few years ago. Since he began, Gignac has sold over 1000 trash cubes of--selective New York City garbage--around the globe. Making the cubes “compositionally appealing”, Gignac sold his cubes initially as “gag gifts” for $10 each. Now, the cubes sell for as much as $100. Each sealed box comes signed, numbered and tagged as “Garbage of New York City”. A small affixed sticker records the date the trash was selected for the cube.

The gist, according to Gignac? “People’s perceptions have completely changed.” Translation: while some people see nothing but trash, other people see art, especially since the cubes cost more now.

....taken from http://www.thedieline.com/blog/