These two gift wrap designs were created for Apple by artist Rex Ray, born September 11, 1956, and died February 9, 2015. He was an “American artist best known for his innovative pop aesthetic in fine and commercial art—on canvases, wood panels, album covers, paper, book jackets, murals, and rock and roll posters.”
The label on the rolls of gift wrap were bright green with white text in the Apple Myriad font and matched Apple’s product packaging at the time. The label included a black-and-white headshot of Rex Ray, and the product description:
“Designed by Rex Ray, this festive wrapping paper was created exclusively for Apple to celebrate the holidays. Rex Ray’s art can be found on book and CD covers, posters, carpets, a Swatch watch, and now the Apple holiday paper. Born in Kaiserslautern, Germany, Ray now makes his home in San Francisco where he has lived for the past 20 years.”
Although the two designs are not named, the beige/brown design has the product number T5817LL/A, and the bright colored design has the product number T5818LL/A.
As a collector, I had no idea this product existed until it appeared on a local Facebook Marketplace post. I had to research it to make sure it was an actual Apple product and found it not only to be legitimate, but Apple had also made a magnetic poetry set with the beige/brown border design the same year (that I also found and acquired on eBay).
The woman from whom I purchased the gift wrap told me she had purchased all the rolls in stock at an Apple Store in 2002 (presumably Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, IL—the only Apple Store in the Chicago area at the time). We negotiated a price, and I purchased all of 29 rolls she had.
Source: Rex Ray Studio
