The Crunchmouth Story
There was a time in America when children would spend five long grueling days in school. (Well, most of them still do.) Then Thursday....then Friday....then FREEDOM! And what better way for a child to spend his first day of freedom, then glued to the front of the television set, enjoying the wonderful pastime known as SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS.
This was the mid-80's. A lot of families didn't have the luxury of having cable television (I know my family didn't). And even if you were fortunate enough to have cable, there weren't nearly as many channel choices as there are today as we sit in the 2020's. TV sets were big, heavy monstrosities, with UHF and VHF tuning dials, Vert and Horiz dials, and rabbit ear antennas. And if you put your hand in front of the curved glass screen, you could feel the static electricity radiating through your hand. (Cool stuff!). We had four channels: NBC, ABC, CBS, and PBS. The number rose to five when FOX was launched (in 1986 I believe).
Sure, there were some cartoons on television scattered throughout the week (Transformers, He-man, and Ducktales probably being the best of the lot), but they couldn't hold a candle to the all-you-can-eat buffet of cartoons that filled Saturday mornings. It was all three networks broadcasting new original programming, starting as early as 7am. And it was all for the kiddos. Needless to say, I didn't need a wake up call. The list of cartoons throughout the years was as long as Santa's list: Smurfs, Robocop, Snorks, Kissyfur, Foofur, Pound Puppies, Looney Tunes, Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling, Alf, Beetlejuice, The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley, The Dukes (of Hazzard), It's Punky Brewster, Gummi Bears, Flintstone Kids, Muppet Babies, Nintendo Captain N: The Game Master, Pac Man, and on and on.
And of course, nothing paired better with Saturday Morning Cartoons than a big bowl of sugary goodness known as cereal. And lots of it! And no offense to Michael Jordan, but no kid ever ate Wheaties in front of the TV. This was back in the day when cereals were designed with kids in mind, with fun, colorful cartoon characters on the boxes that could have headlined their own Saturday morning cartoon. There was Lucky Charms, Alpha Bits, Rice Krispies, Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Pebbles, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Trix, Count Chocula, Sugar Smacks, Apple Jacks, etc. And the best part was that there was usually a prize inside. Yes: right inside the box! You didn't need to go online or collect a gazillion codes. You just poured the cereal and voila, a cheap plastic toy that you could actually hold in your hands right then and there. How could it not make a kid's day?!
One of my favorite cereals was Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch. (Which brings me to the point of this long-winded blog post, about how Crunchmouth Designs got its name.) As its name implied, Cap'n Crunch brought a crunch that did not disappoint. And those little orange balls of peanut-buttery goodness had a rough texture. So you'd get a big ol' heaping spoonful of them and insert that spoon into your child-sized mouth, and there was just no where for that cereal to go except straight to the rooftop of your mouth. And a bowlful or two later, you'd know that you just ate some Cap'n Crunch because your belly was full and the roof of your mouth was aching. And the name of that phenomenon where cereal grates the top of your mouth is, you guessed it, Crunchmouth!
So, to sum it up, I named my business Crunchmouth, because crunch mouth reminds me of eating cereal and watching Saturday morning cartoons. My designs evoke that same feeling of joy and freedom that I felt those many years ago. They are intended to be fun, colorful, and simple, the way I like life (not the cereal, the actual thing). I hope you get as much joy out of my designs as I get out of creating them.
Best wishes, Todd Entenman