Do you remember back in the 50s when every home had a record player and the young Ray Charles started his career with Atlantic Recordings as he made it big in the music scene?  Shorewood Packaging, a Business of International Paper, is helping Ray Charles fans reminisce back to this decade with the creation of a new box set packaging - "Ray Charles Pure Genius - The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959)" for Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Group Company.

"When Ray Charles fans open this box, it's like a time capsule," said Dan Davis, director of package design and development for Shorewood's Home Entertainment Business.  "It looks like a 45rpm portable record player that die-hard fans would have used to play his music."

Shorewood Packaging created this package specifically for Rhino Entertainment to meet its unique packaging request.  Shorewood's Creative and Structural Teams began the project by developing renderings and samples of possible packages for the customer to choose.

"After the design was selected, our Special Packaging Team began constructing the package," said Brit Davis, account executive for Shorewood who spearheaded the project since its inception.  "There were some challenges, but we were able to deliver on time in a quick turnaround.  Our customer was very impressed, in fact speechless, when they first saw this creative packaging solution.

After the package design was approved by Rhino, the Shorewood Digital Team provided prepress support and created final color proofs for the Shorewood plants to manufacture the required quantities of this one-of-a-kind package.

"The compilation and fulfillment of the piece took place at Shorewood's Waterbury, Conn. plant, but it took teamwork from several IP facilities to bring this vision to live," said Brit Davis.  "Collaboration from our vast group of resources was key, because this complex project took input, feedback and buy-in from everyone involved to deliver a successful package."

The box set consists of a hard case that looks like an old portable record player case, with a replica 45 rpm turntable and "Mess Around" record by Ray Charles.  The turntable is a deep draw vacform creation, a new product development from Shorewood Packaging.  This piece was produced with silhouettes and shadows to give it the depth of a real record player.

The box includes a vacform tray underneath the turntable, which holds eight CDs in Digipacks created by Shorewood.  The set also comes with a book on Ray Charles' career in the 50s, which Shorewood also produced.  Shorewood even added a tortoise shell handle on the outside of the box to emulate Ray's glasses.

The package is designed to help fans remember Ray Charles, and the following excerpt from the box set book - "Ray Charles Pure Genius - The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959)" - Describes how his fans view the music inside the box.  "He (Ray Charles) was in perpetual motion.  He moved through life - the highs and lows, the heartaches and triumphs - with singular purpose and tremendous excitement.  If you were with him, even for a fleeting instant, you felt the excitement.  If you listened to his music, that same excitement floods your heart."

This GRAMMY® award nominated package has been described by a leading Packaging publication as "'An Education in Collector's Edition Packaging' due to the inclusion of numerous and diverse substrates and components, structural design precision, and the communication and collaboration needed to construct such a complex package.  When all the elements came together in the Waterbury, Conn. plant for the final assembly, there were eight different stops on the line.  In the end, the package succeeds in capturing the ineffable, magical beauty of the man and his groundbreaking work in the middle of the last century."