I took a foray into new product territory this week. Compact disc packaging. Yes, people are still buying discs, and they need a jacket to hold them.

My son’s band, Pocket Lounge, recently recorded their first album, and are releasing it this week. (It is also available on all major music streaming services.) They had professional full color CDs made by a big city manufacturer, but they also wanted something special for their die hard fans.

Over the years I’ve designed and printed scores of CD packages, usually in editions of one to five copies at the most. This was my opportunity to get into mass manufacturing and make twenty or more!

Putting this together, I had a few points to meet. They needed to be simple in design, hold a disc safely, and I also couldn’t shrink wrap them in plastic. I borrowed a technology from my gift packs and boxes, and made a sliding band that helps contain the disc.

These will be available from Pocket Lounge starting tomorrow. There is only a small batch of them available, and each disc will be numbered and have several colors to choose from.

Pocket Lounge will be having their album release party at Patrick’s on Third in St. Peter, Saturday, August 31 from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. Soul Folk Union will be the opening act.

These will be available for sale at the show, as well as the full-color professionally made CDs, and a limited supply of block-printed thrift store t-shirts.

If you can’t make it to their show, let me know if you want one, and if there are any left, I’ll sure get one to you.

OK, one more Pocket Lounge thing. There’s an article about the band in this week’s editions of the Le Sueur County News and the St. Peter Herald. It’s on the website, but it might be paywalled.