box vox

Gold Bar Packaging

Paca Rabanne’s “1 Million” men’s fragrance (top row via PopSop); second row, left: Donna Karan’s “Gold” (by Laird+Partners); on right: James Martin’s “Limited Gold Edition” gift box containing 2 wine bottles (via PopSop); third row: Au Olive Oil can (via" the Dieline); on right: Rocawear 9IX “Gold Limited Edition” men’s fragrance; bottom: “chocolate amenities” packaging for Mariott Hotels & Resorts by Miller Creative

Following up on the gold thing from our previous post: gold bars.

A lot of luxury packaging employs metallic inks and gold foils to get across the idea that the product contained is a valuable commodity. While stores are not meant to be like Fort Knox, sometimes packages are designed to resemble gold bars. And just as the world’s supply of minable gold is limited, so too, many of these products are only made available on a “limited edition” basis.

(A possible pitfall to this approach, after the fold...)

Packaging Jewelry

Pepsi can earrings from 824 Nothing More

Following the functional traditions of jewelry-as-container—(reliquary lockets of hair, perfume ampoule necklaces and the like)—it should come as no surprise, perhaps, that many consumers are continuing to adorn themselves with packaging jewelry. This includes both miniature CPG jewelry and jewelry crafted from fetish packaging parts (like soda can pull tabs).

Top row: some soda can charms and a “crushed” silver Budweiser beer can pendant; 2nd row, left: Maison Martin Margiela’s can tab ring (via: Hybrid Nation); on right: Jack Daniel’s bottle cuff-links; 3rd row, left: Alex and Chloe’s Can Tab pendent in 14K Gold; on right Colgate toothpaste tube earrings; 4th row: Dannie Glam’s “Candy in a Bottle” necklace; 5th row: Sidney Mobell’s 1990 “Diamond and Gold Sardine Can”; Bottom, left: George Estrella’s sterling silver “Sardine Can Pendant”; Bottom, right: Ricky Boscarino’s sterling silver “Sardine Can” with bronze key and copper fish

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

Supergraphic Wacky Packs

60s kid-satire, “Wacky Packs” meets early 70s, “supergraphics” via Philadelphia-based LTL Prints’ peel & stick wall graphics.

Last year I was touting my decorating acumen for having framed a Wacky Pack press sheet to decorate our office. But these large-scale Wacky Packs (available in sizes up to 7 feet tall) raise a serious client-relations question. How far do I dare go with the Wacky Packaging decor?

Some of these mock packages actually imply that the products they contain are maybe not so good. Is that the message I really want to send? Certainly not the usual market-speak of a consumer packaged goods design firm. Maybe that’s refreshing.

What do you think? If you were a client, would it alienate you? And which one of the Wacky Packages below, do you think would look good, say, seven feet long over our conference table—I mean, without damaging our credibility with you?

 

(Another room photo, after the fold...)

Dollhouse Packaging

Play Scale Minis: seeing to it that the cupboards and pantries of today’s dollhouses are are fully stocked with miniature consumer packaged goods.

(A different dollhouse miniature company and a different product category, after the fold...)

Cross-Category Packaging (Part 5: Bottles and Jars)

This will probably be the last of the cross-category posts—(unless I discover some huge, unsuspected batch of cross-category toothpaste tubes packaging.)

Meanwhile, here are some cross-categorical bottles & jars. Sometimes glass, sometimes plastic, but all containing solid stuff, rather than anything liquid, as such.

1. Lots of candy is packaged in little plastic bottles and jars. Candy is one of those categories that seems very inclined towards cross-category packaging in general. (See: Soda Candy and Medicine Cabinet Candy) Kids seem to have some innate, cultural fascination with packaging. (See: Wacky Packages) Whether these simulated packages are appealing to kids as toys for “playing house” or as some sort of consumer-in-training, developmental thing, candy makers have apparently noticed that kids go for it. Baby Bottle Pop is the example we’re featuring here today.

2. The “Bottle Rockets Waterproof Nova” vibrator, too, comes packaged in a bottle. (via)

3. For some reason: Cupcake in a Jar. (Although this idea seems kind of counter-intuitive to me.)

4. Two watches: A swatch watch that comes in a bottle, and the Too Late watch (that we also featured: here) comes in a jar. (Photo via NotCot)

5. A treasure map puzzle that comes in a bottle. (See: Packaging Puzzles)

6. Two powdered mixes: a “9 Grain Beer Bread Mix” that comes in a beer bottle, and a pancake mix that comes in a conveniently half-empty plastic jug. (So that you can add the wet ingredients and “shake” it.) via weirdmeat.com

7. Baby gear including a “Six Bunnies” body suit in a pink jar, and baby bibs in baby-food jars—(yet another cross-category pack from FreshWear, a company that seems to be all about the cross-category packaging. See also: Milk Cartons and Egg Cartons.)

8. Spice Salt in a Tabasco bottle

9. Giant Art Jar of craft supplies

10. A survivor kit in a bottle—(not to be confused with the survivor kit in a sardine can!)

11. A firefly-theme T-shirt that come in a jar with holes on the top. (See: Packaging as Imprisonment)

(Another picture, after the fold...)

Melissa Martin's Parental-Packaging Sculptures

“Mama’s Milk” 2001, altered milk carton, pvc, spackle and paint

Two artworks by Brooklyn-based sculptor, Melissa Martin, both feature extended packages and are each named after a parent: milk carton for Mama; egg carton for Dad.

“Dad’s Dozen” 2001, altered egg cartons, polystyrene, spackle, paint

Both sculptures remind me of Tom Friedman’s elongated Quaker Oats box, but “Dad’s Dozen,” extended as it is to 3 dozen capacity, also reminds me of Thierry Delva’s “48 Dozen,” which had layers of 3 dozen (3 egg cartons) in a stacked column of 12 layers. (...and all of this attention to aggregate egg carton stuff with multiples of 12, somehow reminds me of Carl Andre’s numbers-based floor arrangements.)

(Another parental-package-related sculpture by Melissa Martin, after the fold...)

Cross-Category Packaging: (Part 4: Sardine Cans)

Another cross-category packaging concept: sardine cans. Similar to the cross-category egg carton packaging for egg-shaped products, these flat cans (with old fashioned keys or pop-top lids) are often thought of as clever containers for any number of fish-shaped products. Where the classic sardine can “keys” are no long practicable, they are sometimes still alluded to in the printed graphics. (Doubtful, however, that the young consumers of, say,  “Squishy Fishies” would have any point of reference for cans of fish that are opened with a key.)

Among the cross-categorically packaged products in this round-up: fish-shaped chocolates and candies, fish-shaped catnip toys, fish-shaped children’s toys, beach-scented candles, T-shirt in a tin, bath salts, a novelty canned mermaid, and a sardine can puzzle. (see: Packaging Puzzles)

Also noteworthy is the “Survival-Kit-in-a-Sardine-Can,” — (itself, packaged in a polybag with a header card.) Part of the kit-in-a-can trend, this kit, by virtue of having been fit into a sardine can, is presumed to be a very efficient & compact assortment. There are also other kits in sardine cans.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

Cross-Category Packaging (Part 3: Egg Cartons)

Top row, left: ”Soggs,“ socks from Xplorys (the same company that brought us FreshWear baby clothes, packaged in milk cartons); on right: egg shaped candles from Coastal Candle Supply; 2nd row, left: Soso in egg-shaped salt shakers (via the dieline); on right: a six-pack of Tenga “egg” sex toys; 3rd row from left (clockwise): marshmallow eggs (from Cybele-’s Flickr Photostream); Benny Bully’s “egg chop” dog treats; Swatch “CHICCHIRICHI” watch and packaging, and “Dancing Egg” game packaging from Haba Toys; on right “Feeling Egg” LED light set packaging; 4th row, left: chocolate eggs from Thompson Candy; on right: a Language Egg Carton Game; 5th row, left: Disney’s Chicken Little figures packaging (via Stuart Ng Books and Toy Whiz); on right: a craft felt egg carton project via eBay; below that: MailleBox yarn packaging (photo from PutYourFlareOn’s Flickr Photostream); 6th row: children’s “egg” toy packaging; bottom row: Asher Jasper’s packaging for felted creatures

Continuing with the cross-category series—(as defined in Part 1)—here are egg cartons which do not contain eggs. (At least not the genuine, laid-by-a-hen type of egg.)

For Easter candy & chocolate eggs (and other deliberately egg-shaped items) it‘s not really such a stretch to come up with the idea of packaging them like eggs. Not so obvious that socks, sex toys, pet treats, yarn, salt, felt toys & LED lights could also be packaged this way.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

Cross-Category Packaging (Part 2: Milk Cartons)

Even though they’ve lost ground to plastic containers—and even though, as often as not, they contain juice—gable top cartons continue to be strongly associated with milk. For this reason, a lot of the cross-categorically packaged products in gable topped cartons, refer to milk. Sometimes these are baby products like the Mimijumi formula bottle and the Freshwear baby romper body suits.

Other times, milk is alluded to for different reasons. The Whoppers malted milk balls come in a gable top container to highlight milk as a presumably important ingredient. Cookies are sometimes packaged in milk cartons, alluding to milk, as the popular accompanying beverage. (The cookie package shown here is a concept proposal by Sami Christianson via the dieline.) The Southpark “Kenny” toy is packed in a milk carton alluding to the “missing children” announcements that frequently appear on milk cartons.

Other stuff packaged in cartons seems to be either a functional choice or a marketing choice. Pepperidge Farm “Goldfish,” for example. —(unless they’re trying to allude to milk as an ingredient of cheese?)

Aquarium Salt has no connection to milk that I know of. Nor do Epsom Salts—(although there are occasionally “milk baths" to be found that are packaged in milk-style cartons.)

Copperhead BBs do not have any dairy connection and yet come in a gable top carton... although it is possible to “milk” a venomous snake...

(See a video commercial from Italian skater brand, Lait Lab, after the fold...)

Stocking the Shelves with Random Objects

One of Ceal Floyer’s “Helix” series: What looks like a shelf of randomly arranged, unrelated packaged goods (and other objects) is actually a rigidly organized artwork.

She begins with a plastic template which has a series of different sized holes cut through it... a tool for drawing circles. ... “Helix” is actually the name of the company that produce it... Ceal has filled every one of the circles ... with some object. Whatever fits that exact circle is used. A toothpaste tube, a Pritt stick, two different sorts of batteries, a candle, a roll of tape, a tablet...there must be about 30 different sized circles and objects.

And all of the objects have a patina of autobiography. But Ceal doesn’t give much away. It’s tantalizing because of its lack of real personal detail. But it’s also comforting in its use of such recognisable and familiar objects. There are a couple of things that I can’t name, but it occurs to me that they are those odd, orphaned pieces of detritus that love to hide at the bottom of drawers or shoeboxes, receptacles of the uncertain bits and pieces in life which we fail to throw away. It’s just such a beautiful and quietly brutal way to present a picture of a life. Whether she thinks of it in these terms I don’t know, but certainly very few, if any, of her other works include anything like as much of a sniff of her life’s detail. It is so rigorous and unflinching a piece. I stand and look at it for ages.

–Russell Herron

See Floyer in the process of stocking the shelves with objects that fit: here.

 

(The product which served as the organizing principle of these sculptures, after the fold...)

FBI Jr. Spy Toy Packaging

In our previous post, we focused on package-shaped cameras, one of which was a toy spy-camera in the shape of a Resse’s Peanut Butter Cap package. Further research turned up this collection of other “FBI Jr.” brand toys on Sam’s Toybox. 

Turns out that “FBI Jr. by Nasta” was all about spy paraphernalia designed to resemble soda & snack food packaging. (None of Sam’s toys are for sale.)

 

(Another Pepsi Walkie Talkies box—one that is for sale—after the fold...)

Packaging Cameras

Top row, left: Velveeta box camera from Allee Willis’s Blog; on right: Coke Can cameras from eBay;  2nd row, left: film canister camera via I New Idea; 3rd row, right: Fanta can camera from CircusCat’s photostream; center: King’s Cigarette box camera from Rick Soloway’s photostream; on right: instant coffee jar camera from eBay; 4th row left: chocolate milk box camera from Four Corners Dark; center: juice box camera from Zebriana’s photostream; on right: Budweiser Beer can camera (from eBay, I think); bottom row, left: Smarties camera from RockyCameras.com; on right: “Zeon Tech” Pepsi camera from Arthur Smokes’ photostream

There seems to be no end to the personal accessory categories in which you can find objects designed to resemble consumer packaged goods. We’ve already covered cigarette lighters, telephones and transistor radios. (Not to mention: salt & pepper shakers) Now we’re looking at package-shaped cameras.

Are they merely advertising promotions or are they products in their own right? Are they toys or another example of extreme brand loyalty?

(Another packaging camera—& the box that it came in—after the jump...)

Jintan Pillow-Pack Pillbox

Jintan 116: a recent packaging “refresh” for Morishita Jintan’s traditional Japanese “mouth refresher” pills. They use a pillow-pack-shaped, pill-dispensing “pillbox”—(patented in 1978 by Noboru Yoshimoto)—which is, itself, contained in a packet.

On left: packets from Fronterpeed’s Flickr Photostream; on right: pill-dispensing pack from Amorimur’s Flickr Photostream

(More Jintan packaging, after the fold...)

Lucky Cat Candy Packet

Tiny cellophane packet achieves a surprisingly effective illusion: transforming its contents —(two gum-ball shaped candies)— into a miniature Maneki Neko.

Different packets feature different facial expressions.

(More photos after the fold...)

Tempest in an Acorn-Shaped Teapot

Acorn brand vending machine photo and ascending price decals from Crow River Trading

Check out this oblique segue: In our previous post we discovered Cynthia Von Buhler’s reliquary prize capsules & vending machine. Her capsules were of the round type but there are also acorn-shaped capsules, as well as a brand of vending machine called “Acorn” made by Oak Manufacturing.

...and speaking of things, acorn: how about all that self-righteous, Republican indignation about that other, more newsworthy Acorn?

The recent Borat-style ‘sting’ by James O’Keefe has put Acorn —(Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now)— on the defensive in the media, but unlike Sacha Baron Cohen, who, as Borat or as Brüno, sought to expose the prejudices of individuals, O’Keefe and his backers have something more grandiose in mind. His YouTube prank videos of a few guileless Acorn workers, have been packaged presented as if they were an indictment of the entire organization as a whole. O’keefe has created a sufficiently prurient sound bite to scare off Acorn’s funding & support and putting its CEO and Chief Organizer, Bertha Lewis onto a mainstream media hot seat.

I met Bertha Lewis when she was a fellow homesteader in the same building in the South Bronx. Living there (and then fighting to remain there) was, for me, just an instinctive response to the 1980s escalation of rents in Manhattan. For Bertha, however, it became more than that. Yes, she too needed an affordable place to live, but it was through her dedication to the various shared struggles of tenants in that building—(rebuilding a collapsed courtyard, unclogging the building’s sewer, securing legal representation in housing court, etc.)— that, I believe, she came to really embrace “housing rights” as a core principle.

Ms. Lewis and her friends moved into the building in 1983 and fixed it up, paying rent to a man who claimed to be the landlord. After two years, they found out they had “been snookered,” Ms. Lewis said. The city tried to oust the occupants as squatters but they resisted, forming a tenants’ association and winning in court. Ms. Lewis became their spokeswoman, reaching out to reporters and persuading William M. Kunstler to take on the case. “I was just trying to save my home,” she said. “I didn’t know anything about organizing. You just learn this stuff, and I learned the hard way.”

New York Times, March 14, 2001

Eventually my wife and I gave up and we left the space that we had worked so hard to fix up, while Bertha and others stayed on to fight the good fight. We were delighted when we learned that she had become head of Acorn and I remember hearing her on NPR warning about predatory lending practices years before all those sub-prime mortgages, bundled into “toxic assets” brought down the entire world’s financial system.

I cringed in 1989 when President Bush (senior) invoked his “thousand points of light” rhetoric, citing volunteerism as a better alternative to any humane or humanitarian government-run assistance. Knowing myself well enough to know that I am not and never have been a “point of light,” it strikes me as horribly ironic, that Bertha Lewis should be now scapegoated by the right wing. Here is the one person I know who actually does exhibit the “volunteer spirit” that the metaphor was supposedly meant to inspire. What if they were to succeed in crushing Acorn? Who would they like to have step up and help poor people? Big government?

See what Rachel Maddow has to say about the Acorn controversy:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(See Bertha Lewis on The Colbert Report and some acorn-related packaging, after the fold...)

Von Buhler's Prize Capsules

Another packaging-related artwork from last weekend’s “Mapping Staten Island” show: Cynthia Von Buhler’s Cynth-O-Matic vending machine. This interactive sculpture caught me off guard and I was putting quarters into it before I had really sorted out my (art-consumer) choices carefully.

“This one has some color,” I thought to myself, “I’ll have one of those...” [turned the handle—made my first purchase] “Oh, it’s menstrual blood... hmmm, what were my other choices? Eyelashes, fingernail clippings, hair, pubic hair... OK, I’ll buy one more capsule, but I cannot be the guy who comes in here and buys only menstrual blood & pubic hair, so I guess I’ll have to go with the fingernails...”

The Cynth-O-Matic machine soon separated this doddering old fool and his money (Photos above by Debby Davis)

Although the capsules’ labels claim that their contents are “100% Genuine” I do have some doubts about their authenticity. As a collector, I don’t want to open these capsules (thereby diminishing their resale value) but, to my eyes, the fingernails look a little plastic and the red seems too bright. (Doesn’t blood dry out and turn brown?) Plus, hair and fingernails take a while to grow. We covered another reliquary type fingernail artwork (here) and, in that case, it took the artist a long time to accumulate a quantity of fingernail clippings. Of course if the contents of Von Behler’s capsules turn out not to be genuine then what I lose as fetish object, I gain in commentary on truth-in-advertising. Her website has this to say about the project:

Have you ever noticed that when you go to an art opening, many people are more focused on the artist than the artwork? Frequently, art viewers do not seriously look at the art. Usually they drink the wine, eat the cheese, and show more interest in the artist than in their art. The Cynth-O-Matic is the answer to this troubling problem. For 25 cents, you can actually have a piece of the artist.

(More photos and another of Von Behler’s package-related vending machines, after the fold...)

Brendan Coyle's Mortal Coil Pack

It may be a symptom of my own obsessive marginalia, but after attending the “Verfall: Decadence and Decay” show this summer (curated by Ginger Shulick) the piece that really stuck with me was artist/performance artist, Brendan Coyle’s polybagged vampire teeth (upper left) with an “Eternal Life” religious tract as the header card. According to Coyle, “It was kind of like a visual caption or accompanying piece” to his larger “Candy Corpse”—(a candy-colored crime scene with high-fructose body parts, licorice string viscera and packaging evidence of candy & cigarette consumption).

What I like so much about the ‘eternal life’ polybag, is the logic and simplicity of the combination. Summing up in one gesture all that is hopeful, yet creepy about immortality. (Brendan Coyle’s mortal/immortal-coil pack.) It also set me to thinking about the hackneyed graphics of religious tracts, in general, and I even found a nice Flickr Set of them: here —(including a Spanish version of the one Coyle used.

The “sugar power” sugar cube is a bit of “found” packaging that Coyle had incorporated into an earlier performance piece and suggestive of yet another good area of arcane packaging exploration: the sugar cube.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

More Shmoo Packaging

A 1950s Shmoos fruit flavored hard candies box with 5 unseparated “fortune” cards from Hakes.com

As long as we’re talking about licensed Shmoo merchandise and its packaging, here’s more of it. The merchandising of Shmoo products in the late 1940s to early 1950s was a wildly successful example of character licensing. Presumably, the designers of these packs didn’t have the rigid style guides that we follow for licensed packaging today. The branding of Shmoo products was a lot more diverse and all over the map, as compared to, say, Sponge Bob products. To the extent that these products do match, stylistically, I reckon it is mainly due to Al Capp, himself, having final approval over the artwork.

1950 Pencil-shaped pencil-box/whistle with Shmoo branded pencils from from Hakes.com

(More Shmoo packaging, after the fold...)

Cadbury Egg Shaped Car(s)

Photo of car on right from Gothickma’s Flickr Photostream

Cadbury’s foil-wrapped, creme-filled chocolate improvement upon the egg—the very egg, which many regard as sufficiently “perfect” in its own right. And then, as if to guild the Easter lily even further: a Cadbury Creme Egg shaped car. Another package-shaped vehicle. (Also see: vehicle-shaped packaging.)

And this ‘humorous’ clip about the car—(doing the self-similar, fractal thing, as well as the packaging costume thing).

(More egg-shaped vehicles, after the fold...)

Msxi's Packaging Parables

Msxi is a London-based illustrator who sent us a link to her website. “Junk Food Benny” is her cautionary tale about snack food packaging and childhood obesity. (Maybe not just childhood obesity, in view of the admonishing Mum in panel #5.) Her story line seems particularly pertinent to proposals being considered here in the U.S. (Federal “Soda Tax” and NY State “Obesity Tax” for example.)

I have only the first 8 of 11 panels above. (Note: the scary anthro-packets in panel #3.) To find out how this story turns out, you will need to go to Msxi’s website. 

(Another of Msxi’s packaging-related illustrations, after the fold...)