I’ve been designing things for Pork Pie Hatters for a year, now. This has included their site, a custom door, some signage, an extra large stamp, a series of hats, and a host of other things. Recently, we’ve been talking about displays, interior decoration, and finding ways to maximize the hats on display while keeping a lid on the clutter. The main problem with selling anything in Manhattan is finding a place to put any stock that isn’t out on the shelves, and the problem with buying anything in Manhattan is sorting it into your microscopic apartment. So, I came up with some flat pack hat stands.

The idea is to send folks home with hats on their heads and a flat pack hat stand, so they don’t have to find room in their lives for a hat box. Traditionally hat boxes come as flat cardboard assemblies that you construct into these 2’x2’x1′ nightmares, or they’re fully assembled oval extrusions whose main aim in life is to take up space.

These little guys are laser cut from a maple veneer ply, left unfinished, and fastened together with a simple binding post that can be secured with a quarter. I also designed and printed the packaging for them. I’m very fond of the pillow packs as well. They also pack flat so you don’t have to worry about them taking up space when you’re busy using the stand, but are still useful for storing the bits of your hat stand when it’s not hosting a hat.

What I’m proudest about in this whole project is the way they’re printed. Each cardboard package fits into a jig that helps align a laser cut stamp. I roll block printing ink on to the stamp, and then line it up and squeeze the stamp onto the cardboard. The front side has the usual branding and advertising, and the back bears all the instructions you’ll need to construct the stand.

Currently they’re only available for folks visiting Pork Pie Hatters or JJ Hat Center in person, but there should be enough to stock on the site for anyone to buy in a few months.

The photos in this post are by Numi Empire, and you can see more from this shoot over on Flickr. There’s also some info on the Phrenology Tumblr and the Pork Pie Hatters Blog.