Monopoly Repackaging
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
188 Comments
Monopoly, in spite being the classiest of all board games, unfortunately is packaged just as boringly and uncreatively as every other garbage board game on the shelves. So, I decided to repackage it... turning the class up to 11.
All of the boxes are made out of chocolate brown mat board and skinned in cream arches cover. The final package is just over 10" x 10" x 1.5" and includes smaller containers for all of the various pieces and cards and a laser-cut holder for all of the houses and hotels.
The new design is so sexy!
Thanks a lot Ryan! I am glad you like it.
Andy,
Damn but your presentation on this Monopoly re-design looks good!
Thanks a lot Phil, I see you have been googling yourself again!
wow dude! nice work. I love monopoly but agree that the design is a bit lacking.
you should tackle the board and the cards next and then sell it on limited release, although, you might have some legal issues: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_board_game_Monopoly#Legal_status
maybe Hasbro could be convinced to do a designer edition with like 500 of each designer’s work?
blogged about this here http://www.catto.co.za/post/65711306/super-classy-repackaged-monopoly-game-by-design
Fantastic work Andy, love that wrap around.
@Ricky: I would love to at some point tackle a redesign of the board and actual elements of the board game (wooden houses and hotels would be real nice too). I wouldn’t want to change it too much however, because of how iconic the game and board are. Thanks for the kind words.
And thanks Uriah, its inspired by expensive boxes of chocolates!
I’ve got a really old version of Monopoly which has wooden houses and hotels.
Nice work!
Andy, just saw this on the dieline.com and thought it was legit! I was so excited and was ready to buy it! This looks so pro. The way you’ve cleaned the classy look up is really nice, congrats & great work!
I would love to see the board, Andy. Do it! This is really well-done.
Love the work. Sexy, sleek and modern. I want to buy one just for the look of it. What other kind of work are you doing?
Would love to see the board and would love to buy a copy…
great stuff!!
give Bernard a sheepish high-five for me!
Andy, that looks amazing. You’ve done an excellent job and I hope to see some more great work coming from you. Keep us updated on if Hasbro buys your design!
Thanks for all of the kind words everyone, to answer some of the questions:
My semester just ended, so I will be taking a bit of a break for a week or so, then I have a poster series I am planning on finishing before mid-January.
And I would love to see that old-school board/package Alice!
Where’s the board? And the pieces?
Andy, this is really great work. It’s so clean and simple. It’s begging to be held and played. Well done! Be sure to update me if you get to the board.
Andy, love the design. The color pallet makes me hungry. At first it felt like a box of candy. Candy is fun and that’s the energy you want to project to people. It gets them to play the game. Keeping everything simple and clean makes it beautiful.
I work for Zappos.com and acted as the lead designer for our charitable Monopoly game. I was however bound by Zappos’ style guide and branding features. USAopoly, the makers of customized Monopoly games, also had their guidelines and rules. So our hands were tied in a lot of place but we got the design to flow with the Zappos branding.
Check it out: http://zeta.zappos.com/product/7523060/color/104143
Does no one goto their local Barney’s store?! They’ve been selling a top of the line Monopoly set for years. Seems like they are not offering it on their website anymore but here is a link…http://www.thisnext.com/item/A5AE12F0/Barneys-New-York-Monopoly
Its beautiful but i think you forgot the game board….
It really is klassy. With a k.
To respond to some of the questions:
The game board is in the bottom of the box, underneath of all of the individual elements. The game pieces are in the sectioned-off drawer that can be seen in the third picture. The drawer goes into the sleeve that can be seen on the far right side of the same picture with the icons of select pieces on the front.
I appreciate the detail with which you guys are inspecting my stuff!
Nicely done! It does look a little too sophisticated for kids though. Was it intended to be a coffee table version of the game?
@nisio: This packaging of the game was certainly more aimed at the adult market; I personally have never found kids to have the patience to really play the game. Hopefully this would appeal to the true Monopoly fan.
Wow - this looks really great. Much better than the current old design of Monopoly. Perhaps you should send your design to them - maybe they’ll choose it for a new packaging design. That would be great
As someone that has played a Monopoly game for 53 hours straight (yeah, I’m a bit obsessive), I have to send you immense kudos on this packaging design. And Andy, if you don’t mind (let me know!) I would have no trouble approaching Hasbro to try and get their permission for you to do a limited run of games with this packaging. (I, of course, would buy it in a heartbeat.)
Let me know if you want me to get in touch with Hasbro, I might know someone there.
And thanks for doing this. If the Hasbro thing doesn’t work out and you’re willing to sell that set you’ve pictured above, let me know. Seriously.
@Sameer: I have not thought about any corporate or commercial application of this, but I am certainly open to the idea! I do not think I would sell this version I have made myself though…
I’ll give a shout to someone at Hasbro and keep you in the loop. Can’t promise anything, but it doesn’t hurt to try, right?
nice stuff.. would like to have seen a re-design of the playing board to go with…
The packaging is really nice. But how would it effect the design of the board itself?
Well done sir, well done.
Confused as to why you think there should be a place setting for each hotel and house. It seems like the peices could be organized in another box or little bag…
Well done overall.
now this is super fine!
Very elegant! I love the overall look and especially how you’ve been able to blend functionality with creativity. If I owned this version of Monopoly,I’d leave the box open as both an art piece and an invitation to play. Bravo!
Nicely done! I hope the folks at Monopoly see this as I would buy this game in a heartbeat. Happy Holidays!
Beautiful.
That is amazingly beautiful. I would by that today if it was available.
@Schaubs
Well aren’t these suppose to be things of value? If you open up the box and think… man those look important… there’s a little spot carved out for each piece… then you’ll play a little harder in order to get them. Dumping the houses & hotels in a cheap plastic bag would seem to cheapen them.
SuperCool!
@Shawn and Schaubs (and anyone else interested): The main reasons for showcasing the houses and hotels in the fashion I chose were:
a. To come up with a way to be sure that you have not lost any of the small pieces during gameplay.
b. To keep the box from rattling around when everything is all packed inside of it.
c. Also, you don’t have to take all of the houses and hotels out unless the specific game necessitates the use of all the houses and hotels, so cleanup is easy.
As someone who plays a lot of board games, I have to tell you that this packaging is beautiful, but not entirely functional. I would dread having to put each of those houses or hotels back in their respective little slots.
Your reasoning for this design element only raises more questions. What makes the small house pieces more likely to be lost than, say, a single paper bill? As you say, it’s unlikely a given game will use all pieces, so a lost piece isn’t a very big deal. Especially considering the fact that the manufacturer could easily include 4 or 5 extra pieces at little additional cost. As for the rattling of loosely packaged pieces, this could easily be overcome by putting the pieces in a small plastic bag. Short of that, you could live with it, as the rattling would only occur when the box is being moved.
I think this is a case of form over function.
Nice job. I like the monochrome ‘icons’.
One thing that would be FANTASTIC to see redesigned would be the rules. So many people fail to follow some of the most important rules (i.e. no money for free parking, missed rent payments, etc.) which result in weird/long gameplay.
It looks very nice, but projects an air of staid pompousness. Monopoly is supposed to be fun and this doesn’t look like fun at all.
Hey Andy — love the redesign, but as a graphic and game designer, I’m really curious as to what makes Monopoly the “classiest” of all board games, to you. Classic, surely, classy, not so sure about that …
Looks great but more like a “W” hotel towel set or box of chocolates rather than a real estate board game. Again, very stylish but I don’t feel it represents the game enough.
I think this is a good design school sample. A good assignment for a design class, and a good effort. But let’s not get carried away with ourselves. Start taking yourself too seriously and you’ll start sounding like a blowhard.
Oh my GOD. Where can I buy this?
Very appealing design visually, but seems kinda wasteful, compared to the current design.
It’s a very nice design, but it’s a shame that it’s wasted on such a lousy game.
Cool design! We could definitely use you over in the board game hobby! Except instead of Monopoly, you could repackage some actual good games such as Settlers of Catan, Tigris & Euphrates, etc. There’s a whole world of great games out there besides those that you find on the shelves of big box retailers in need of talented designers!
Here are some pages that show the original packaging for the games. They definitely need some help!
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/42
Nice presentation. This is truely classier than the standard versions.
Don’t fool yourself that Monopoly is the classiest of all boardgames though as stated in the description above. Even when repackaged, the game itself is outclassed by a signficant number of other games, that are less well known, and by a few that are very well known. Two obvious examples of the well known games are Chess and Go - both very elegant in their most basic form, and not only classy but classic.
I did say I like this repackaging, and I do, but I would miss the row of individual money trays for each bill denomination. When I have played Monopoly, we actually used this package feature as the bank.
Calling Monopoly the classiest of all board games is like calling SPAM the classiest of all canned ham-like products. Try Agricola, Le Havre, or Power Grid for classy board games.
Mmm… box of chocolate. Oh wait, it’s Monopoly. Damn. Classy design!
Nicely done, Andy. Maybe you could now turn your attention to some real board games that desperately need your artistic touch: Settlers of Catan and Agricola being great places to start.
Quibble: The Community Chest icon is a bit trashcan. Way pretty overall.
Nice work.
However, saying “all the other garbage boardgames” doesn’t really do all the other boardgames justice. Check out http://www.boardgamegeek.com and check out the art design of current modern boardgame design. Monopoly is far from the “classiest”
Does your design appeals to the kids and adults who play the game? The design is very nice but it doesn’t seem like the right packaging for a fun game.
Well… the packaging redesign is great… but what about the game board?
3 stars out of 5.
I liked it as an adult. But this design won’t go well with kids. They get attracted to colourful boxes. I’d have not touched it as a kid. However, I liked the packaging inside.
Nice repackaging there, but there are SO many other games out there that are infinitely more interesting than “Monotony”! Give some of the others a try before you condemn them all as “garbage.”
“Does your design appeals to the kids and adults who play the game? The design is very nice but it doesn’t seem like the right packaging for a fun game.”
I didn’t think any Monopoly appealed to kids and adults.
btw I thought the design looked great.
Bill
Andy, please ignore the idiocy currently being posted here by the men-children from BoardGameGeek. It is considered very hip and fashionable over there to bash Monopoly. It’s a way to score points with the site’s self-anointed intelligentsia and to prove that you are somehow a “discerning” gamer. And, yes, the whole thing is as silly as it sounds … these are actually (allegedly) grown men doing this.
Not all of us over there are like this. On behalf of all BGG users that actually go outside every once in a while, I apologize for the appalling rudeness being displayed here.
um…where’s the board?
Come now, Embarrassed, no-one disrespected the man’s work, simply the medium. Imagine that I’m in an art gallery. I can dislike a certain medium (still-life paintings, for example). They aren’t saying the work is bad, simply that they don’t like the medium, and that, perhaps, there are better mediums out there that they would better appreciate him working with, such as Settlers of Catan or Agricola.
There’s no need to be rude to other BGG members, to call them men-children or saying they never go outside. They expressed their opinion, and it’s different than yours. It would be seen as silly if you wrote such a post if they said “I like the re-design, but maybe you could re-do the $500 bills in blue.” and chose to disagree with that. This is the internet, and agreements are rare, arguments are common, and people are free to express their opinions.
Nice work, but you really need to clarify your statement of all “other” boardgames being garbage. I mean, it really points to a general lack of knowledge to boardgames themselves when you make statements like that.
Sure, your work here looks just fine, but other Euro games have already well surpassed this look. I guess it’s just a lack of knowledge that other, much better games exist that allows people to make these types of comments.
As a previous poster mentioned, check out games like Power Grid, 1960: Making of a President, and Tichu. Monopoly simply doesn’t stand up to those games in anything other than sales figures.
About my comments above:
My brief little description about the project was not intended to be taken nearly as seriously as it has been. I was only comparing Monopoly to the games it shares shelves with in stores like Toys ‘R Us, games like Sorry, Guess Who, Apples to Apples, etc.
I do appreciate and read all of the comments, including the critique. I will have to check out some of these other games that I have not heard of.
That’s very open-minded of you, Andy. I hope you like what you find.
well, hi admin adn people nice forum indeed. how’s life? hope it’s introduce branch
Very nice. I see you also improved the usability a bit, but why not improve the ‘bank’ by using a fold-out ‘wallet’ where every note-value has it’s own pocket.
Could you also post a ‘before’ picture (or link), for those of us who are unaware of the current Monopoly box design?
Dear “Embarrassed”, I can’t see any one using rude language except you (who were directly insulting).
Personally, I think older (pre-garish) editions of Monopoly already looks way better than they play (though this design improves it even further, good work!). One reason I personally find Monopoly to be boring sometimes is that there are seldom interesting choices to make. To buy or not buy what you landed on, and sometimes there’s an auction.
A game like Agricola could use a freshening, its looks don’t appeal to me at all.
(It’s also sad that the original satirical point of The Landlord’s Game (one of the precursors to Monopoly) have been lost over the yearss. It’s supposed to not work.)
Clean,simple(not exactly) and direct without excess of lines or color.
I love it.
Congratulations !
Is the lack lack of a bored a satirical comment on society having no property left to distribute?
Hi Andy,
As much as I hate the Monopoly branding I think that your design version is a great deal of style but no substance. The icon use is dull and the colour contrasts add nothing to the package. The idea of having a box for the die doesn’t work at all. It looks redundant and plain.
If I was looking for a boardgame and did not know anything about Monopoly beforehand I would walk straight past this. It looks more like a box of chocolates trying to be sophisticated but under the lid is just the same old toffees.
It’s a shame, the idea of rebranding Monopoly was a great one and I was really preparing to love this. But I can’t, sorry.
I’m not one to be so pessimistic about things, and it’s Christmas too, but this really does not work.
I don’t find it sexy. I find it bland and cold..
I would purchase this for an absurd amount of money. Looking at it just makes me happy. Beautiful work.
Absolutely stunning. Have you talked to Parker Brothers about getting this produced and out into the mainstream public? I would buy a set like this happily for $50.
This is beautiful!
Wow! beautiful game production and packaging. However, Monopoly, as a game, sucks! LOL
Wow!
So impressive and elegant.
Cheers.
Beautiful, truly, if Monopoly were a high end brand of chocolate candy.
WTF? Is this site just design freaks? Its not that amazing, get over it folks. Its nice yes, but who really cares that it looks like a website now?
I collect monopoly boards (my collection is still budding, it will increase when I get more space and a better job).
This is absolutly beautiful, would you be willing to sell it or put it on eBay?
While visually attractive, it would be a nightmare to use. Trying to put the houses and hotels back in their cutouts after each time you play would be very difficult, and the “all-in-one” container for the bank’s money provides no easy “cash drawer” for whoever plays as banker. While some of your changes could be incorporated to freshen up the packaging, we certainly must not forget about keeping the product usable.
Awesome, now how about a makeover for GM & Chrysler?
If only it were edible. Kinda looks like white chocolate.
Well I am a destructive personality. I blow shit up, kill, maim, burn, stab, shoot, scorch, and generally mess shit up. But you know my best friends all have artistic talents: painters, woodworkers, tattoo artists, and some mediums that I cant even describe. My point is I like your Monopoly board. Dont know what else you have out there but your monopoly board is pretty sweet. Good job brother keep up the good work.
Most sincerely and respectfully,
SSG~AIRBORNE~
I wish I had a kickass name like ANDY MANGOLD.
Was just thinking how extremely well this might go with the Helvetica Monopoly playing board: http://www.zukunft.fr/pagehelvet.htm
And Boom goes the Dynamite
The point of the design is to sell the game, full stop. You’ve presented no evidence that your design does so, either through enhanced game play (long term sales) or in-store attractiveness (near term sales).
Literally a toy for aesthetes. Form follows function.
PS How much does all the packaging cost? How does a working class family pay out from their scant savings for laser cut holders for their fake money? You’ve presented a design in total vacuum. Which is pointless.
This is beautiful work. I went & looked at the Barneys design, as per someone else’s comment, & really, yours is much much better. I want to see you do the board!
Incredible! Monopoly design team should cut you a check immediately and run this to the market place. I’m a new fan young fella!
Very nice. Unlike some of the others posting here, I don’t think the expense of the packaging is a problem — if the packaging is expensive, then market it alongside the existing cheap packaging as an “upscale” set.
Hasbro has been pushing the face icon you’ve chosen as emblemic of the game, so it ties in well with their current marketing. The die-cut holders for the houses and hotels serve an in-game purpose as well: those resources are intentionally limited. You can’t build a house unless there is one to build, and similarly with hotels. By having clear laser-cut places to put them rather than a jumble in a box or bag, it’s clear how many are left, and it’s clear if you have lost one.
Two criticisms above I do agree with. First, the icon for Community Chest does, as one person put it, look a bit “trashcany”. That’s easily fixed by designing a new icon.
The second, more important one, is the money container. Having all the money in one container makes it hard to deal with. The original money tray, resembling a cash-register money tray, is easy to deal moneys out of and return. A single stack, not so much. One solution would be to turn the single box into a series of connected, staggered boxes, so an bill of any denomination could easily be accessed.
It should also be noted that money, in the game, is a limited resource, and it is possible (but unlikely) to break the bank.
I think your design, as it is, is about as far as you can take it while using the original game materials. If you open yourself up to redesigning the houses/hotels, the board, the cards, the money, and the tokens, a lot more possibilities open up.
I’m sorry, but I don’t see what everyone is jazzed about here. Possibly a pleasing combination of colors but little else to love. Packaging must meet a marketing need and convey the flavor of the content. It fails.
@Blaise - Thank you, and the others before you, for your thoughtful and in depth comments. The Community Chest icon could use some reworking, but I would like to respond to the cash drawer comments as that was a conscious choice I made in the design process.
The missing “cash drawer” segmented for each denomination was one of my largest concerns with this repackaging. However, when you really think about it, it is a superfluous piece of the packaging not necessary to the game. During play, there is no reason the piles of each denomination have to be in a plastic thing to be separated, there can just be piles on the table of each denomination. When in storage, the plastic “drawer” does not secure the stacks in any way, so it is not a viable storage option and the bills just end up in one rubberbanded stack anyway.
That is quite classy and very well done.
The design is classy. When I first saw the box design, I can’t help to think it a monoploy game made of chocolate…Yummy.
Anyway I would like to follow up about the container for the cash. It may look neat in the beginning but I foresee if after a game or two, the dollar bills may not slip into the that container nicely.
My suggestion would be instead of pushing it into the cash container that you have, why not use a chrome metal clip like those who clip their dollar bills together? It would be more practical since some are doing that in their daily life. You may provide 4 of such clips too for the players or more.
Just my 2 cent.
Monopoly originated in England. This doesn’t look very British.
Where’s the Union Jack?
I want to eat it!
Shocked.
At first this was hard to take. But the more I thought about it, you now have an elegant package that can sit proudly on any bookshelf, not hidden in some “games closet” like at my house!
Good work.
So, when will Parker Bros. get some sense and DO THIS?
Little T writes:
Monopoly originated in England. This doesn’t look very British.
Uh, what gave you that idea? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darrow
Monopoly originated in Philadelphia.
Anyways, this is such a beautiful design. I would be proud to own a version packaged like this.
As for people saying it doesn’t make the marketing sense, they really need to look at the current packaging and also realise that it’s marketing a game that is a cultural icon, not some no-name game that people really need to be sold on.
Wow. I really like it! It really does make it look so much better and much classier.
Nice redesign! It will be interesting to see how it plays out legally. They should package it up for you to sell.
Very nice
Love this repackaging! Really wish that Monopoly will actually come out with this repackaging.
True Monopoly is really gonna be in love with this!
It’s sexy, simple, yet so classy!
Great Job!!!
Good job!
Thanks for post
Great job. This is something you did which should reminds all graphic designers that designs need not be totally complicated, simple and neat will always bring out the element of good design.
“How does a working class family pay out from their scant savings for laser cut holders for their fake money? You’ve presented a design in total vacuum. Which is pointless.”
I honestly can’t tell if that was supposed to be a joke, or if this entire thing went right over your head.
The new design looks great! If you feel like talking about it on camera, I’m producing a documentary about the game of MONOPOLY titled “Under the Boardwalk.” You can check out a trailer at http://www.MonopolyDocumentary.com
Very elegant but I’m a bit surprised… it really looks like Monoprix logotype…
My goodness!! i LOVE it, is it being considerd to take into production and if so where would i be able to buy it?
Reading your article helped me a lot
Thanks!
I love it. It’s fantastic. It embodies monopoly in every single way.
Possible changes:
-The money holder should be the same, except the front face of the box should unlatch and drop down, with partitions for the notes done in paper-concertina file-holder fashion, effectively solving the bank access problem. This holder would sit nicely next to the game board (have a look at in standing there in the second picture). Being vertical, it would be far more compact and easy to move around than a horizontal bank tray.
-The money holder may have to be slightly wider to accommodate the concertina (unless it’s done with string between the partitions, don’t know how impractical this is for production however, or unless the paper was folded in a way that would fit) so you could place the dice along the top or bottom of the house/hotel section, to allow room.
-The game board should be redesigned, but not overhauled.
(line colors maybe a dark brown, main colour could be the cream used for everything else, middle section of game board redone, etc.)
-Layout of the tiles should remain pretty much the same.
-The property colors should remain the same, or desaturated only slightly, everybody knows these colors and uses them to thumb through the property deck to find the property they need quickly and easily. I guess they look nice and recognizable on the board too. Changing them, or making them all the same, would cause it to look much too different.
-There should be a piece(s) of paper/whatever glued to the floor of the box that would stick out the top at the sides (like tabs), which you would pull to lift everything out for easy access (mac keyboard users would know what I mean from the battery section.) This is a small change but would make a difference when setting up, keeping the box from being bent out of shape by impatient fingers. This is not entirely necessary though, because you can easily lift out the various holders, allowing access to the board, but still, it’s something to consider.
Also, I think that the outside box is perfect the way it is. It does not need more color or information. Kids will notice the box from the other side of the room and go running, no doubt. The Uncle Pennybags logo on the front would stand out and be readable from very far away, which I think is a great selling point. The ribbon looks fantastic, but could perhaps be made diagonal and placed over the bottom left hand corner as to not obscure Mr. Pennybags wonderful face, unless the obscuring is desired, because it does look interesting.
To Andy Mangold,
I think you’ve really done this timeless game justice and I hope you try selling the design to Parker Brothers right away. Please stick to your vision of this being the new regular edition game, fight for it. Don’t let this be another expensive special edition that only few will buy. Thank you so much if you’ve read this far hahaha. I only say so much because I love it.
@ Luke:
Thanks a lot for your in depth comment! I do take the time to read all of the comments on the site. You have a lot of good suggestions, and I will definitely look into it should I decide to try and sell this to Parker Brothers.
Hi andy
It looks very stylish, but a question would be - might you wish to retain the brand strength that monopoly has in the recognitions its board layout has within its market?
my thought would be that the ‘face and hat’ logo doesn’t have near to the same brand recognition as the board, which could limit attraction and/or awareness to the packaged item?
what do you think?
regards
Scott
saw this on ffffound, have to say its really smart. Monopoly is a pain in the arse in general but to house the houses in foam is so simple but works really well (you always loses pieces).
this version would be sold at harrords.
pure class
regards
@Scott - It is true that this repackaging does rely on the recognizability of the man in the hat, but I think its a safe bet. While the board is equally or perhaps even more recognizable, it is not quite as classy as this guy.
@Mark Kane - Thanks for your kind words!
Where’s the flat broken box with the sides that sort of flap in the wind when you take the ‘lid’ off?
Seriously, I think it rocks. Everyone knows a monopoly game should last for generations. It’s just that kind of game! Can you re-work Chutes ‘n Ladders too?
@Eleanore: Thanks for the comments! My next plan is actually to rework Scrabble this summer for a friend of mine, but I will keep chutes and ladders in mind!
The new look is very stylish. I’ve never seen this in germany until now…
Wonderful work! We’ll publish a pic on our site. Please get in touch if you’d like to write about design of board games in general — we’re researching a feature on the subject of creating board games for commercial release. Ashley
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