Jacob Waites

I design, prototype, and build brands and interactions full of expressive type, fun motion, bold colors, and minimal line-work. Sometimes I write and speak about design. My craft is the way I speak to the world, I work to help others find their voice and make them successful.

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Goldielox Mahjong

Brand Product Fabrication Game design

A mahjong set that brings judaicah to traditional chinese symbology in hope of bringing more players the world of mahjong.

I worked with the founder of Goldielox Mahjong to bring her vision to life: a set of 43 tiles to capture elements of jewish culture and weave them into a mahjong set. We went through many rounds of revisions with multiple manufacturers to settle on the final designs. Along the way I created multiple lasercut samples of different tile sizes and layouts, inking them by hand to ensure readability was high at the small tile size.

The tileset

Below is a capture of the tileset, sized to the traditional chinese mahjong sizing standard. We had originally made larger tiles, but moved to a smaller size to ensure players could use familial racks if they desired.

 

Final manufactured tiles

Below are some captures from Viv of the final tiles from the Goldielox site.

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The Brand

The Goldielox brand features a set of vintage inspired badges in a 1950s style hand-lettered face. The brand was made to be flexible and expand or shrink in complexity to fill different spaces on packaging, walls, paper ephemera, or anything else the company might need.

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Packaging and Inserts

Boxes were designed in three colorways, we approached the packaging design to be versatile for use in shipping or for in-store purchasing. Inside the boxes there would also sit some inserts featuring a welcome guide with storytelling around the tiles and suits, along with a handy mahjong hand guide to set the player up for an advantage.

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Interactive Table scene

I mocked up the initial tileset in 3D in Spline to have fun moving the tiles around and have some judgement of size in comparison to the racks and an underlying mat.

Mat Designs

I designed branded playing mats and updated the 3D table preview in an array of colorways and variations as a previewer for future mat designs.

 

Web designs

Even though web implementation was not part of the project, I created a set of initial designs for a small website for Goldielox.

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