AL CAPONE
Alphonse Gabriel Capone January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit. His seven-year reign as crime boss ended when he went to prison at age 33.
One of my favourite projects throughout my time at university, this task went from a simple typography task to me and my partner Eng Zyan Ken, creating a full size Prohibition alcohol smuggling crate, to the same specifications as what was supposedly used.
At the start of the project we were given a task to create a type project with the constraint of only using initials. We were given at random the name of a famous person in history, we had the exciting and notorious Al Capone.
As a result we started researching this crime boss of Chicago, we soon found that the man responsible for the Valentines Day mascara and also known for being Public Enemy No. 1 in Chicago, used to smuggle alcohol from Canada with the assistance of a customised car that could fit multiple standardised unassuming wooden boxes.
Al Capone's Outfit used to smuggle many illegal products through Canada using everyday items such as suitcases, hats and shoes with secret panels or compartments, so we explored the idea of creating a three dimensional design to mimic what was used.
We came to the concussion to create one of the whiskey smuggling boxes. We then had to create the initials, we experimented with designing different type faces a came to the result of combining the shapes of the letters with the tools of the trade of the gangsters of the era.
From this design we then made cutting path to make the two dimensional design 3D.
After gathering a weathered pallet bored and some MDF wood we got to spraying, gluing, screwing and shooting some lasers, resulting in a close to accurate Prohibition smuggling box with so illegal contents complete with illegal cargo in the initials of the famous Al Capone.
