Writer/Director/Producer J.J. Abrams is quite open about the origins of his mystery fetish. Much of it can be traced back to an enigmatic box he bought from a magic shop as a child which he has still not opened to this day. All of
his shows and films contain a variation of this Mystery Box – the Irina Box from Alias, the Rabbit’s Foot from Mission Impossible III, and pretty much everything and everyone on Lost.
Digging into the arcane lore of Lost is well-worn territory, however, there’s always room for quality niche geekery - such as recreating items from the Periodic Resupply Drop pallets which appear on the island once every six to eight months. Welcome to the wheelhouse of Calixto from Max Pictures.
Bottoms up, nerds
Calixto takes design cues from screenshots which marginally contain the heaping skids and helps bring the random assortment of generic Dharma Initiative goods into our world. All of the items are perfectly (perhaps lovingly?) replicated down to the very minutest of details, including the inscrutable code DI 9FFTR731 imprinted on the packaging. Even more perfect, they’re optimized for downloading (as .pdf) and printing so that the nerd hordes can host Lost viewing parties featuring refreshments such as Dharma Initiative Amber Lager, Dharma Initiative Stout, and the sodium-rich Dharma Initiative Potato Crisps! There are nearly 70 unique products available on this still-expanding list, all expertly designed, catalogued, and photographed. It’s as close to nerdgasm as the world wide web will bring you.
Occult Lavatory Sundries
In the same vein, we have Adam Campbell – owner of the Canadian graphic design company Hot Meteor. Adam has created a brilliant Flickr set featuring vintage ads for Dharma Initiative products which presumably would have been featured in an on-island periodical of some sort.
I especially appreciate the ad for this Dharma Initiative Alarm Clock replete with an article fragment highlighting the Chess Challenger 1, the world’s first chess machine, invented in 1977. Details. It’s where the devil is.
And now, links!
