“What’s in the box?,” everyone wondered. A month ago today we were at the Prince George Ballroom for the AIGA/NY holiday party and auction. The box in question contained secret gifts donated by the NY chapter’s board members. Scott Carson from Noble Desktop (one of AIGA/NY’s sustaining partners) was the winning bidder.

Scott, excited by what he found inside his box of surprises, sent an email to his Noble Desktop mailing list. We were excited too and (of course) eager to know just what the box contained. Kindly, Scott’s allowed us to republish his email. It appears below in-full:

Subject: AIGA Holiday Party Mystery Box

Noble Desktop is a sustaining partner of the AIGA in New York, hence Noble Desktop Director Scott Carson was at the AIGA Holiday party in December. At that event (which was highly fun and successful) there was an auction of design miscellany led by auctioneer John Hodgman (the PC guy in those Apple commercials, and featured on the Daily Show). The last thing to be auctioned was a “Mystery box” — a collection of surprise design bonbons from AIGA board members. Scott thought there must be some good stuff in there. But why was the bidding so timid? For dramatic effect, Scott put in a bid of $500 after it was about to go for $380. The collective gasp was worth the price alone. The hug from John Hodgman afterward was lagniappe.

The auction benefited the AIGA/NY Mentoring Program, which pairs local high school students with professional designers, so it was a good cause no matter what was in the Mystery Box. However, as Scott was leaving many AIGA members requested a report on the contents. Herewith, the mystery box items:

• A poster revue book from the Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich, 1926
• A book of the Donald Brun Poster Collection
• A Swiss typography book from 1954
• A classic old string of postcards of NYC buildings and sites
• A plum older Barney’s fashion catalog/advertisement
• A signed photograph of Wynton Marsalis
• A double CD, Congo Square, featuring the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Odadaa
• A collection of innovative Start Here planners and notebooks that can be linked together to form one book
• A 500 gram can of meaningfullness with a collection of pretty objects including a marble egg
• The book Drawing a Tree by Bruno Munari
• The DVD C’était un Rendezvous by Claude Lelouch
  

• A signed copy of the beautiful book Catalog by Carin Goldberg
• A classic Mr. T Giant Card Game
• A mod and cool Nooka watch
• Five Ten-Line Novels by Sam Potts (the first of which was read and quite enjoyed)
• A lovely framed work of art by Rob Giampetro
• The book Fifty, The Amazing Story of Renzo Rossi and Diesel
• A Helf*ck*ngvetica T-shirt, one of only 150 (only censored here for spam filters)
• A collection of necklaces made out of modern material such as computer cable
• A 1904 edition of Baedeker’s United States Guidebook, with 25 maps of the US at that time

After a list like that, you can only assume the Mystery Box will attract a much higher bid next year!