Box Vox

packaging as content

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July 20, 2009

Package as meaningful object

SeriousThingsBook

I recently purchased and read this book by Joshua Glenn & Carol Hayes: Taking Things Seriously, 75 Objects with Unexpected Significance.

The concept as presented in Joshua Glenn’s introduction:

“Step into the living room, study, office, studio, or den of just about any engaged, imaginative, passionate individual and you’ll gravitate toward an item that, although it might not appear particularly valuable, is reverently displayed as if it were a precious and irreplaceable artifact. Inquire about the object’s provenance and you’ll be treated to a lively anecdote about how it came into your host’s possession. Keep digging, and you might crack the code of what the thing means.”

A very nice object in it’s own right, this book, designed by Carol Hayes, includes photos of the 75 (unexpectedly significant) objects, each with an accompanying explanation.

By my reckoning, some 20% of the objects featured in the book are packages. Maybe 16 out of 75. Okay, not all the objects included in my count are full-fledged retail packages—(like the Zippy bottle on page 22 or the Velveeta Cheese box on page 50, above). But how else would you classify an object like “a rock wrapped in a pie tin” (page 116) or a tiny piece of pottery (page 100) that turns out to be the perfect container for a specific broken marble?

Tell a new acquaintance that you design packages for a living, and you’re likely to get a blank look in reply. We’re surrounded by packaging, but, like water to a school of fish, it’s pretty much invisible to us as we’re swimming around in it. Still, with packages so prevalent in our environment, how could they not occasionally become meaningful to us? Not meaningful in the way that the designer or the manufacturer intended. Meaningful in some other, more personal way. Consider Jennifer Alden’s favorite glass jar:

I few years ago I started collecting jars. Not antique jars, but jars of pickles, jam, mustard, capers, maraschino cherries. I was inspired by my grandfather, who recycled food jars to store his nails, washers, nuts and bolts. A new jar calls out to me every time I shop at the grocery store. I take it home, and after we’ve eaten its contents, I gently wash it and removed its label by soaking it in hot soapy water.

Of the dozens I have collected, this one is the most beautiful, the most divine. I don’t remember what this particular jar held, and the only clue is some cryptic marks surrounding the number 7 on the bottom. The diameter of the jar’s mouth, the gentle rising threads, the width-to-height-to-depth ratio of the factory molded glass, it’s breathtaking simplicity, combine to create a sensation in my mouth, a taste in my throat, that I can’t make anyone else understand.

Taking Thing Seriously 
Jennifer Alden (page 96: glass jar)

I learned about this book via the related Significant Objects web site. The idea there is similar, except that, while the objects featured on the web site are real enough—(and for sale), the stories about them are fictional. Check it out.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

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