Snowball Fight, by David Laferriere
Over the years we’ve featured the amazing sandwich bag art of a number of devoted parents here on GeekDad, and here’s another one to add to that fine group of creative lunch makers. I’ve been seeing these funny little pictures pop up in the GeekDad Flickr group for a while now (you do know we have a Flickr group where you can add any of your geeky snaps, right?), and so I contacted the artist to find out a bit more. I can just about find the time in the morning to get together two slices of bread with something in between and pop them in my daughter’s lunchbox, so I was interested to see how a ‘pro’ does it.
The creator of these plastic bag masterpieces is David Laferriere, a designer and illustrator from Massachusetts. He has two sons and every morning he makes their sandwiches, but before he packs them away he grabs his Sharpies and draws something on the bags for the kids to discover at lunchtime. Turns out he’s been doing it for over four years now, creating over 1,000 individual works of art. Read on to find out how it all came about.
Robot Dog
GeekDad: How, and why, did it all start?
Laferriere: I just started it as a way to jump-start my creativity in the morning and have some fun with my boys. I am a designer/illustrator, and I’ve been doodling, drawing, painting, and creating since I was a youngster.
Some of my sandwich bag ideas have made it into my professional and personal work.
GeekDad: How long have you been doing it and how many have you done now?
Laferriere: [as of October 24, 2012] I have 967 sandwich bags and 364 lunch bags for a grand total of 1,331 since starting on May 5, 2008, Cinco de Mayo. Drew a sombrero.
The lunch bag art was my sandwich bag art but on paper. One son had a lunch bag that came with container for his sandwich. Since I didn’t need to use a bag I improvised.
GeekDad: Where do you get the ideas from?
Laferriere: My ideas come from a variety of places. It may be something that we were talking about, something that happened to them, or to me because of them. Something that I saw in a magazine, a blog or out of a window. Some holidays are idea generators like Halloween and Christmas. Others are from doodles and sketchbook drawings. All the rest are just sitting in my head waiting for the right sandwich bag.
Glass Of Milk
GeekDad: What do you kids (and their friends) think about it?
Laferriere: My kids love it. Their friends ask to see what was drawn and are disappointed when they don’t have a sandwich for lunch (occasionally they will get a special salad or some restaurant leftovers).
GeekDad: What’s your favorite one?
Laferriere: There are quite a few that are my favorites, each for different reasons:
Robot dog with robot dog poop
Snowball fight between two snowmen (a two-bagger): I did this when I went on a class trip with my youngest, had to make a sandwich for me as well.
Glass of milk: this was an early one. I used a napkin for the milk.
GeekDad: What are your kids’ favorite ones?
Laferriere: My oldest liked it when I drew a Creeper. He thought, “hey my Dad likes something I like.” My youngest always likes the ones with worms going in and out of the sandwich.
Frog-like
GeekDad: Do you make them (and the sandwiches) the night before or in the morning? And do you do them in batches?
Laferriere: Each morning I make two sandwiches. Bag ’em and then draw. Every school day. Every summer camp day. I take photo with my cellphone and send it up to Flickr. When it hits Flickr it goes to Twitter.
GeekDad: Do you foresee an end? Or will it go on until they leave home?
Laferriere: I don’t see an end to it yet. It is totally up to them to tell me to stop. I know it will end sometime though…
Check out the rest of David’s sandwich bag art over on Flickr and don’t forget to add your own geeky photos to our GeekDad group.
