Mr. Mirainga “Burnin’ Rubber”

This was designed to be a very eye-catching promotional piece for a brand-new band that was fortunate enough to have the first single from what was then a very highly anticipated movie, Jim Carey’s “Ace Ventura—When Nature Calls.”

The song title, “Burnin’ Rubber,” was a somewhat obvious chance to explore the possibility of using rubber. This project was really dependent on the feasibility, both financially and mechanically, of constructing a piece out of rubber and making it work. Westland Graphics, which excels at this kind of specialty printing, was amazing. We contacted a rubber stamp manufacturer and they made us the large sheets that were cut down and individually glued to the digi-paks. It was a very difficult project but in the end the reaction to the piece made it well worth it.

The design was intended to look like a tire tread—the repetition of the band’s name and the song title giving the illusion of the grooves of an actual tread. It was a fun project that explored a material that is seldom used for this purpose. Very expensive but well worth the splash it made.