Box Vox

packaging as content

April 14, 2010

3 Kinds of Cereal Box Puzzle

Vppuzzles_1_600x600_0

1. Variety Pack Puzzles
Some packaging puzzles of the jigsaw type.

“Each set of variety puzzles contain four packets of different cereal themed jigsaw puzzles, and each comes with its own extra puzzle on the reverse. Each pack of cereal puzzles contains a 100 piece jigsaw of a bowl of cereal…”

From SpinningHat.com

LuckyCharmsPuzzle

photo from: The Meehans ‘with a Silent H’ blog

2. DIY Cereal Box Puzzles
Cereal boxes have for decades featured occasional games and puzzles on the back, but the idea of using the fronts for DIY puzzles appears to have been gaining traction recently.

“The fronts of cereal boxes are often bright and colorful. Follow these directions to make them into fun puzzles! Cut the front from a cereal box. Recycle the rest… use a pencil to divide the back into different shaped sections like puzzle pieces… Use scissors to cut on the pencil lines.”

from “3 Things To Do With a Cereal Box” by Carol Ann Bloom
(via: The Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation)

(3rd type of cereal box puzzle, after the fold…)

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March 23, 2010

Playstation Clothing

PSClothing1

PS Clothing: brand development and package design by GR/DD. Surprisingly subtle and retrained packaging for video game clothing. (In contrast to, say, X-box)

(Another photo, after the fold…)

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February 23, 2010

Kinder Joy’s Dual-Chambered Egg Pack

KinderJoyPicture Photo from SmALl CloUd …'s Flickr Photostream

Kinder Joy brings several favorite box vox themes together in one package.

1. First off, it’s another egg-pack, fitting nicely into our entirely egg-shaped week—(that, technically, should have begun with the Silly Putty/L’eggs post from last week)—and although Kinder Joy may be sold at Easter, the company, by no means, confines their marketing efforts to that time of year.

2. It’s another thermoformed, single-serve, peel-off pack in a metaphorical shape. Similar to the bottle & jar-shaped packets and the half-orange-shaped packs from earlier this month. In fact, Kinder Joy’s dual structure—one half for the edible treat; one half for the prize—is exactly like that of Alberto Ghirardello’s Salvo concept (where two halves of an orange break apart to form two separate containers).

3. Kinder Joy (like Kinder Surprise) is a “surprise package” and includes the classic, question-mark styling, typical of that tradition.

KinderCompartments Photo on right (revealing prize) is from P.J.S.'s Flickr Photostream

(Case-packs & TV commercials , after the fold…)

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January 20, 2010

Controller-Shaped Underwear Packaging

X-BoxUnderwear Upper photo: from AsusEpoxy’s PhotoBucket; Lower photo from Aksys Nation! blog

Search online for “underwear” + “control” and what do you find? There’s women’s “control underwear” (AKA: “shapewear”—descendants of girdles). There’s men’s scent control underwear (for hunters).

And now: underwear for gamers—this one packaged in an X-box controller-shaped tin. (Other shapes too.) Game tie-in product licensing, run amok? Or is there something more behind this underwear-as-gamegear trend?

Consider JennyLC Chowdhury’s Intimate Controllers:

“Intimate Controllers” is a platform where video games are played by couples touching each other.  The platform consists of two controllers, a bra for the female player and boxer shorts for the male player.  Each controller is embedded with 6 sensors placed with varying degrees of intimacy in relation to the body part with which they correspond. Players must pass game levels together and in doing so, game play results in increasingly intimate positioning. The goal of this project was to research and create objects that challenge the traditional notions and orientation of video game play.

from JennyLC Chowdhury’s Graduate Thesis for
NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program

(An Intimate Controllers diagram, after the fold…)

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January 7, 2010

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

BottleJars

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…)

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January 1, 2010

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

SardinePacks

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

December 30, 2009

Cross-Category Packaging (Part 3: Egg Cartons)

Eggcartonpacks

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

December 3, 2009

Fractal Jenga Box

SingleBox A fractal-pack idea from the high concept section of London-based The Core’s website…

Designed to resemble one of the building blocks it contains, this self-similar Jenga box could, itself, be stacked like Jenga blocks for an in-store display. (More about how packaging can be fractal: here, here, here, here, here, here & here)

(Note: I extracted the single box on the right from The Core’s picture of stacked boxes below.)

Jenga 

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

 

November 10, 2009

Vintage Marbles Packaging

Cac_no100_slagsAkro_agate_prize_name_box

Akro_agate_striped_onyx_box

Not the popular children’s toy, they once were, but to continue with yesterday’s thought: boxes. During their heyday, marbles were packaged in boxes. Sometimes these boxes might include a carrying pouch, but marbles in plastic polybags came later. (With one exception, all of these photos are via Marbles Galore.)

(More marbles boxes, after the fold…)

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October 20, 2009

Buckyballs Packaging: Before & After

BuckyBallsBeforeAfter

Maybe you’ve seen the YouTube videos of someone’s expert hands, artfully wrangling these magnetic ball bearings into different polyhedral arrangements. A fun crystal-structure teaching opportunity (and cool that it references Buckminster Fuller and fullerenes, AKA: buckyballs)

Zoomdoggle recently switched their packaging from a glass jar to a PVC box. (I met owner, Craig Zucker last August at Gift Fair and learned that the design of the new pack was handled in-house.)

(A Buckyballs display, after the fold…)

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October 1, 2009

More Shmoo Packaging

ShmooCandyBox

ShmooCards

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.

PencilWhistle

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

(More Shmoo packaging, after the fold…)

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August 20, 2009

Ridley’s House of Novelties Packaging

Ridleys
I attended Gift Fair this past weekend. These extreme vintage boxes for Wild & Wolf’s “Ridley’s House of Novelties” got my attention. I think the illustrations really capture the dime-store/magic-shop gestalt of these products.

I was also impressed with how far they were willing to go with the faux-vintage background color of these boxes. Personally, I’m attracted to the time-worn look of old retail boxes that you find in thrift shops, but I wonder if some stores might be put off by packages that looks almost shop-worn even though they’re brand new. (Of course, pre-washed denim sold alright when that came out, so maybe it’s a non-issue.)

Also: check out the knockoff Doublemint—“Pure Mint”—joke gum pack on the “5 Classic Jokes” box.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

July 21, 2009

Aerosol String Cans

AerosolStringCans On left: a flattened can of “Streamer String” I found in my neighborhood; on right: a vintage can of Wham-O “Silly String” available on eBay for $225.

Walking the dog this weekend, I found a crushed can of aerosol string on the street. This is one of those products that would not even be a product, except for the packaging. Can you imagine anyone buying this stuff pre-extruded on a roll? Like Pez candy, it’s all about the delivery method.

Not too great, graphically, although the multi-colored string-lines did
catch my eye—(there in the gutter, by the fire hydrant on Van Duzer). With
multi-colored type treatments like this, it seems like there’s always
gonna be one color that’s too light for good contrast. (Like the “a” in
eBay’s logo.) At any rate, it’s not featured here for its graphic design, but
as a point of entry.

 Silly String (on the right) was the original aerosol string product. Invented by Leonard A. Fish and Robert P. Cox—(see their patent below)—who assigned the rights to Wham-O in 1972. Streamer String is one of the surviving, imitation brands.

SillyStingPatent

(Silly String TV Commercial, after the fold…)

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July 3, 2009

Packaging Puzzles

MillerBeerCan

From the legendary (now defunct) Synergistics Research Corporation: a series of packing/packaging puzzles. “Packing” puzzles because they pose a “packing problem”—

Packing problems are one area where mathematics meets puzzles (recreational mathematics). Many of these problems stem from real-life problems with packing items.

In a packing problem, you are given:

  • one or more (usually two- or three-dimensional) containers
  • several ‘goods’, some or all of which must be packed into this container
from Wikipedia’s entry on “Packing Problems”

—and “packaging” puzzles because they put this recreational mathematical game into a faux retail package. Below is Synergistics Research Corp’s 1983 patent for the cylindrical can-puzzle design.

CanPuzzlePatent-463 

(More packaging puzzles, after the fold…)

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May 31, 2009

4 Aerosol Paint Can Spin-Offs

Seymour I’ve got 4 spray-paint-can related items that I had been planning to ration out one at a time, but since they all seem to have evolved from the same set of cultural chromosomes, I’m now thinking that it would make more sense to look at them all in one fell swoop.

Just to remind ourselves that aerosol paint cans did not always signify renegade street art & graffiti, I give you a historical note about the father of the spray paint can, Edward Seymour. (pictured, above left)

In 1949, Edward Seymour added paint to existing aerosol can technology at his wife Bonnie’s suggestion. Initially designed to demonstrate his aluminum paint, the delivery system itself was instantly popular. Seymour of Sycamore, Inc. still produces aerosol spray paints to this day.

Wikipedia entry on aerosol paint cans

Aerosol

The thing about a spray paint container is that it’s not just a container. It’s also the tool used to apply the paint. And because of that, spray paint cans are natural candidates for being turned into fetish objects signifying graffiti. Like artists’ paint brushes—(see: Jasper Johns)—spray paint cans have taken on the cachet of an entire creative pursuit. Although with spray paint cans there is also a kind of cultural vandalism being embraced. Spray paint is, after all, a packaged product that must now be purchased from a special locked cabinet because its renegade customers may transgress the rules of private & public property.

1. Jake Rankin’s Spray Paint Lamps

SprayPaintLamp

Jake Rankin turns used spray paint cans into desk lamps, with the spray nozzle as a switch. Obviously appealing for fans of graffiti and/or fans of upcycling. (Not really sure how often those two demographic groups might overlap.)

I think these lamps have an interesting counterintuitive aspect. Both light and spray paint are thought of and depicted in similar ways—as a sort of expanding, but dissipating ray. Yet the lamp’s light does not emerge from the same place that the spray paint does. The light comes from a bulb in the base of the can rather than the nozzle. I know there are practical reasons for this, but formally and conceptually… I’m just saying.

(via the unconsumption blog)

(3 more aerosol paint can spin-offs, after the fold…)

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March 31, 2009

packaging as toys

So hi flip cutout 

So-Hi Marble game cutout from back of Post Cereal. Uploaded by Neato Coolville.

Nowadays toys get packaged with things (think Cracker Jack, McDonald's Happy Meals), but I really like the idea of packaging being turned into (packaged as?) a toy. It strikes me both as a retro form of upcycling and a lot more eco-friendly than manufacturing a bunch of little plastic doodads that inevitably get thrown away.

The designs for toys on packaging could be really resourceful sometimes. Most of them utilized only the small surface area of tagboard to design a whole spectrum of different types of toys and games, from simple masks to complex flying saucers.

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March 4, 2009

SPAM brand games (packaged in cans)

Spam-composite

Last month at Toy Fair I noticed these licensed SPAM brand games at Haywire Group’s booth.

Interesting how being mocked by Monty Python —(Spamalot, et al.)— and becoming the generic term for junk email advertising has only served to make SPAM all the more beloved of a brand icon. (Judging from the official SPAM website, Hormel Foods gets this and is embracing their goofy cult status.)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

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