Mickalene Thomas and Yellowpop commissioned packaging design for their Flowers collaboration, available to the public for purchase.
One of my favorite elements of Mickalene Thomas’s artwork is her extensive use of collage. She combines existing photography, patterns, colors, and even her own artwork to create new works.
To help distinguish this packaging design while paying homage to Thomas’s studio practice, we decided to feature a full-bleed, all-over collage created from Thomas’s existing artwork. With this design, each edition arrives encased in a pattern that feels authentically Mickalene Thomas.
We chose to use five of Mickalene Thomas’s Untitled collages to create the all-over graphic used in the packaging design. These
One of my favorite elements of Mickalene Thomas’s artwork is her extensive use of collage. She combines existing photography, patterns, colors, and even her own artwork to create new works.
To help distinguish this packaging design while paying homage to Thomas’s studio practice, we decided to feature a full-bleed, all-over collage created from Thomas’s existing artwork. With this design, each edition arrives encased in a pattern that feels authentically Mickalene Thomas.
We chose to use five of Mickalene Thomas’s Untitled collages to create the all-over graphic used in the packaging design. These
collages feature distinctive elements, from lips to animal print to an abstract dotted pattern. Combining these collages into a new collage helped create an intricate, eye-catching print.
To create the all-over print, we imported high-res images of the Untitled collages into Yellowpop’s template in Photoshop. We then laid each collage on top of one another using polygonal masks. We reviewed multiple design sketches featuring the collages in different orientations, scales, and alignments. The artist selected one of these sketches to be used in the final design, and we refined the collage placement to ensure that all text is legible.
The Mickalene Thomas x Yellowpop neon signs were released publicly on 02.12.25. Each edition sold was shipped to the buyer inside this packaging.