packaging as content

February 3, 2012

Capsule Packaging

Following the pharmaceutical thread, the earliest patent for a two-piece, telescoping capsule was granted in 1846 to Jules César Lehuby.

Hard two-piece capsules were first invented in 1846 when Parisian pharmacist J.C. Lehuby was granted French Patent 4435 for “Mes envelopes médicamenteuses”

Division of Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics
Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki

I failed to turn up Lehuby’s patent, but above are patent drawing of various envisioned improvements and refinements by other inventors over the years.

I’m less interested here in ways of packaging capsules, than in the idea that the capsule, itself, is a package. A capsule’s main purpose is to shield us from the bad-tasting medicine it contains. Lehuby compared his invention to a “cylindrical box capable of containing the required medical substance in its interior.”

What is a capsule, if not a tiny, edible container? If you have any lingering doubt that it’s truly a “package” in the modern sense of the word, just consider the extent to which the capsule is branded. (e.g.: Nexium “the purple pill)

Capsule manufacturer, Capsugel even has a “Build You Own Capsule” app, enabling its customers to brand their capsules with Pantone color and logos.

What is that, I ask you, if not “package design?”

The capsule, in fact, is such an intriguing contraption that designers have sought to package other products in them, as well. Usually this is done by carefully implying “vitamins” rather than prescription drugs.

Vitamin Water capsule bottle concept by Cindy Ng & JJ Lee

There is, however, the occasional encapsulated product that will embrace the drug thing, as in the Sunshine Enema music package, in which the music is contained in a capsule-shaped USB drive. (Designed by Jeremy & Erin Fortes)

(More encapsulated products, after the fold…) (more…)

February 2, 2012

The Burgopak Slider Pack

Another patented interactive pharmaceutical pack: the Burgopak slider pack…

The invention after which the company is named was made by Yorkshireman, Burgo Wharton, whose fascination with pop-up books gave him the idea for packaging boxes with sliding drawers. You pull out one side and the other side goes out too — people think it’s magic! Burgo patented the idea and the company was formed with Mr Wharton as creative director.

Diary of a packaging innovation, The Daily Telegraph, May 26, 2009

Burgopaks have also been used to package CDs, SIM cards and electronics, but seem to have really caught on as pharmaceutical packaging. The counter-intuitive surprise of pulling in one direction and having something pop out in another direction is the key to this pack’s appeal.

Using a Burgopak to deliver their erectile dysfunction medication, Bayer’s brand manager for Levitra, comes close, but does not quite acknowledge the implied metaphor: “We chose the Burgopak design for our new Levitra formulation because it’s pocket-friendly, discreet and gives the product a playful edge over its competitors.”

Another name for the same brand is “Staxyn” which also comes in a black and orange BurgoPak, just like Levitra pack above. (I’m not sure why Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline created two matching brands for this one drug.) There’s a nice interactive demonstration of the package on the Staxyn website.

Come to think of it, both of their packs remind me of those black “5 Gum” packages.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

February 1, 2012

The GlaxoSmithKline “Diskus^®”

Years ago, when I first started seeing these packages in advertisments for various GlaxoSmithKline inhalant powders, the design looked to me like something produced by some alien technology. (See below the Diskus^® as compared to an alien “cutting disk” from the movie, “Predator.”)

Later I happened to see some patents for the device —(Diskus^® in the US; Accuhaler^® in the UK)— and I realized how ambitious a package it was.

The inhalers that I was previously familiar with had all used aerosol propellants, which the Diskus does not use. This inhaler also has a counter which countdown to “0” the remaining metered doses and unfolds open and closed on a rotational axis. The alien asymmetry of its profile is largely due to the fact that it’s mechanism was designed to be actuated by the thumb of one’s right hand.

I recently got a chance to interact with the alien technology of the Diskus, having been prescribed Advair for a temporary bronchial inflammation.

One thing that could have made more obvious for me, was that you don’t feel like you’re inhaling anything. I wound up impetuously double dosing until I noticed a slight crunchy residue of powder in my mouth. Reading more carefully, I noticed this fact was mentioned later in the instructions.

Last year, Advair was the 4th best-selling prescription drug at $4.7 Billion. (via: Consumer Reports)

Designed by Gregor Anderson, head of GlaxoSmithKline’s “Technical Packaging Centre of Excellence,” the Diskus won a “Gold Award” in the 2003 DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation.

(More about Diskus manufacture and its clockwork interior, after the fold…)

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January 31, 2012

Liberty Bell Jars

Nash’s Prepared Mustard was sold in a number of different figural glass jars —(that could often be reused as children’s coin banks)— and in the late 1940s or early 1950s one of these jars was “Liberty Bell” shaped. (Jar on left from eBay $39.99; jar on right from eBid $19.99)

It’s customary for sellers of antique glassware to stipulate to any chips or cracks, but, with Liberty Bell jars, it’s interesting to see whether the seller will notice the paradox of a glass reproduction of the famously cracked Liberty Bell. Some don’t seem to notice it:

“Shape of liberty bell jar is in very good condition. No chips, no cracks.”

Others do:

“imitation” crack that you would find on the real Liberty Bell

_______________________________________________________________

“The jar has no chips or cracks except the crack that is suppose to be on the liberty bell.”

“Liberty Bell Bottle Bank” from Anderson Militia, $25

Kraft also came out with a mustard in this type of jar and later, in 1976, Liberty Bell jars enjoyed a brief Bicentennial renaissance as containers for maraschino cherries, Spanish olives and probably other patriotic foods, as well.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

January 27, 2012

The Old Package Design Feed Bag

If you read this blog by way of email subscription or RSS feed, you may have wondered why box vox suddenly stopped posting this past week. The fact is, I’ve had my hands full trying to migrate this blog from TypePad to a WordPress site hosted on our own BeachPackagingDesign site. There were actually three posts made since the switch, but it only dawned on me yesterday that feed subscribers were being orphaned by the move. Now that I’ve updated the RSS feed, I’m hoping everyone who opted in will continue receiving our ultra-significant package design missives.

Feed Bags: 3 kinds

1. Feed bags for horses (sold for $88.13 at Cowan Auctions)

2. Bag packaging for animal feed (for sale for $14 from shepshaberdashery’s Etsy Store)

3. Candy “feeding bags” from a vintage ad in a 1911 issue of International Confectioner, sold for only 1¢ each (via: The Candy Professor)

January 26, 2012

Package Design & Wolverine Toy Refrigerator Doors

Left: photo from The T-Cozy’s Flickr Photostream; on right photo from The House of Oliver’s Etsy store ($29)

We’ve shown similar toys with trompe l’oeil name brand packages printed on them —(toy shopping carts, miniature dollhouse packages, etc.)— but I recently got a glimpse inside a Wolverine brand toy fridge.

Originally, toys like the pink refrigerator on the right (with “a full larder reproduced on door insides”) retailed for only $2.98, but as a collectible the price is now higher. (Wolverine advertising photo via: The People History)

I’ve lost track of some of these photo sources, but 2nd row, left: from Live Auctioneers; on right: from MarkandBlyth’s Flickr Photostream; 3rd row, left: from The T-Cozy; on right: from RainbowMermaid’s Flickr Photostream; 4th row, left from Schaufensterbabe; on right: from eBay Auction ($19) bottom row, right: pink fridge from TwirlswithPearls’ Etsy Store

With the doors of the refrigerators permanently stocked with food packaging, we wondered what sort of packaging the toys, themselves came in.

(Asked and answered after the fold…)

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January 25, 2012

Ceci n’est pas une Skippers pipe

Jonna Perdersen (whose sculptures we looked at yesterday) entitled the painting above “This Is a Pipe.” Making clever use of a brand of licorice pipes that I was not aware of —“Skippers Pipes”—and making reference to that popular paradox of representational art: The Treachery of Images by René Magritte. In Magritte’s painting a pipe appears above a caption that declares in French, “This is not a pipe”…

The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it’s just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture “This is a pipe,” I’d have been lying!

In Pedersen’s painting, Magritte’s paradox is given an additional twist, since the product portrayed is, itself, a faux pipe. [Full disclosure: when I was in art school, I combined a 6 inch lenngth of galvanized heating pipe with an elbow joint (forming a pipe-like shape) and gave it the old “Ceci n’est pas une pipe inscription.]

Originally trademarked in 1966 by Chicago based Leaf Brands, Inc., the product has recently come under fire as a simulated tobacco candy product.(like candy cigarettes) and appears to be somewhat discontinued. That is to say, I can find no mention of it on Leaf’s web site.

Matching Skippers Pipes wrapper photo from mulch.thief’s Flickr Photostream

Upper left: photo from Christiane Torden; on right: counter top display box from Fine Little Day; lower photo from After The Denim

Note how the lower box has additional faux features. This is not a wooden gift box tied up with red string.

(My own non-pipe work, after the fold…)

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January 23, 2012

Jonna Pedersen’s Package Sculptures

Last August we featured some of Jonna Pedersen’s paintings of Danish packaging.

Her contribution to the upcoming, Global Village 2012 show in Alkmaar, Holland, includes two over-sized package sculptures: a Maggi Bouillon box (above) and the margarine package on right.

–Randy Ludacer

January 20, 2012

Astronaut Water Revisited

A detail from cbelt123’s photo, “Astronaut water from my dad’s basement”

Back in 2009, I wrote a post about Canada Dry’s mysterious Astronaut Water that, in the 1960s, came in a space capsule shaped plastic bottle. Clearly, the product was connected to the Gemini space program, but I couldn’t understand how plain, bottled water could have been promoted in those days as a kids’ beverage—even if it was the same stuff the astronauts drank in outer space.

Recently I was contacted by John MacLean, now head of Target Flavors, who, in the 1960s had worked at Canada Dry Laboratories and was uniquely qualified to clear things up for me.

Maclean, shown in a 1965 press clipping above (holding, what I believe is, a Gemini “8” Astronaut Water bottle like the one on the left) explained to me that, despite its commerical packaging, Astronaut Water was never meant to be retail product. A small number of these bottles were distributed to the press as part of a promotional campaign to publicize Canada Dry’s important contribution to the space program.

John S. MacLean of Danbury, Conn., analytical chemist who drew up specifications for the water, holds a sample bottle of the triple distilled liquid. Not for sale to the public, Astronaut Water undergoes a thorough inspection at Greenwich Canada Dry Laboratories before it is used in space flights for drinking, reconstituting dehydrated foods and purging space capsule systems.

An unidentified Connecticut Newspaper, 1965

In contrast to today’s packaged water, which is generally promoted for its natural purity, Astronaut Water was publicized as a space-age engineering feat. Triple distilled in a platinum block… So pure that it doesn’t conduct electricity… (More of the water’s technical specs appeared in the 1966 “Press Reference Book” for Gemini Spacecraft Number Eleven, prepared by the External Relations Division, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, on right)

The Gemini “8” bottle was an ordinary glass beverage-bottle, but for the Gemini “9” version, they really pulled out the stops, opting for the plastic, space capsule shaped bottle. Although MacLean could not confirm this, it seems likely that the matching space-capsule-shaped-bottle-shaped savings bank (below) was part of the same publicity campaign.

Once it had been made clear to me that it was journalists (and not children) who were the intended demographic for bottled Astronaut Water, I wondered if there were any articles to be found online about it…

(Astronaut Water meets the Press, after the fold…)

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January 18, 2012

Bottle Tables

Left: Harry Allen’s “Cocktail Table.”; Right: Nathan Tobiason’s “Wine Table.”

Above: Gregor Stoltz’s collaborative PET recycling project table.

Above: Don Wine’s “Port Wine Table.”

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

January 16, 2012

Super PAC Packaging

As we enjoy a new, hyperbolic political season, generously funded by large amounts of Super Political Action Committee money, I thought it might be a good time to take a look at some earlier types of Super Pac.

Not surprisingly, the name was previously associated with packaging.

SuperPac, Inc., whose logo appears at top, offers “A Tradition of Excellence in Flexographic Printing.”

SuperPAC™ (logo: above center) is a trademark of Thomasville Furniture:

Thomasville’s promise to provide our customers with the best overall kitchen, bath, and other room solutions initiated our development of SuperPAC, our patent pending packaging technique.

And SuperPac is also the name of a British company that makes a car stereo accessory. (Logo by Frankman Design)

Superpac is the new way to hold your detachable car stereo front. Designed to replace the dull black plastic case supplied with most car stereos, the Superpac offers you a stylish way to protect your cherished face-off style car stereo.

Mastey de Paris carries a SuperPac “Intensive Reconstructor Conditioner for Stressed, Damaged Hair” (above, right)

Superpac reconstructs damaged hair, rebuilding and reinforcing the hair’s protein chains. Superpac enables hair to retain its elasticity and structural integrity with newfound bounce and resilience.

Mastey de Paris

There was also a Timberland Super Pac boot. (via: Gwar Izm)

Nowadays, a candidate whose political campaign benefits from Super PAC money is not supposed to “coordinate directly” with his or her Super PAC benefactor. In practice, however, a candidate’s Super PAC is often run by a close ally—a Super PAC man. (e.g., Jon Stewart is Steven Colbert’s “Super PAC man”)

Not to be confused with an earlier “Super Pac-Man.”

Top & center: Commodore 64 “Super Pac-Man” packaging from Moby Games; bottom photo: a General Mills Pac-Man cereal with “Super Pac-Man Marshmallows” from Jason Liebig’s flickr Photostream

Now, if we were willing to be more liberal about the spelling of the term—accepting say “PAK” as a reasonable variant (as in Political Action Kommittee?)—then there’s even more to think about.

(More, after the fold…)

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January 12, 2012

Purple Cow Packaging

Vintage Holloway’s Purple Cow candy wrapper from Jason LieBig’s Flickr Photostream; William’s Purple Cow Lager can from The Beer Can Guide; Milka Chocolate’s purple cow shaped folding carton (via: Packaging of the World); a vintage “purple cow” fruit label for Washington apples for sale on eBay ($250)

Based on an 1895 poem by Gelett Burgess, a “purple cow” generally meant something “out of the ordinary” or something you don’t see every day. As depicted in these vintage packages, each with its whimsical cow illustration, the concept was fine.

I’m not so accepting of the new over-arching definition of “purple cow” as something remarkably innovative, as set forth in Seth Godin’s book, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. Because of this book, some people are now calling any ground-breaking, category disrupting product a “purple cow.”

For some reason, I find this new meaning a loathsome thing. To me, the name “purple cow” diminishes the hard work of innovation, making it sound like something merely capricous.

I doubt Steve Jobs would ever have given one of Apple’s products as insipid a name as “purple cow” and yet all over the place there are people now saying that the iPad and the iPhone are “purple cows.”

You need look no further than the scapbooking craft company The Purple Cows to understand the uncool connotations that this name carries.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

January 11, 2012

NOS Consumer Confusion

I’d seen “NOS” energy drink around for a while, but aside from noticing that the logo was sort of clunky and spelled “son” if you looked at it upside down, I didn’t think too much about it.

I hadn’t realized it was named after a leading brand of nitrous oxide. Or that “NOS” stands for “Nitrous Oxide Systems.”

Considering all the attention paid to the negative influence of energy drink brands with names like “Cocaine” and “Hemp,” I was surprised not to have known about a “Nitrous Oxide” energy drink.

NOS even put out a version of their bottle, designed to resemble a Nitrous Oxide Systems tank, but it’s more about caffeinated racing cars, than huffing inhalants, apparently.

NOS 22oz PET was awarded BevNET’s Best of 2007 for Packaging Innovation…

“The authentic package design of NOS 22oz PET was inspired by the actual nitrous oxide canister, developed by Holley Performance Products, which prompted the design and use of ‘valve’ over caps,” said Bill Meissner, Chief Marketing Officer at FUZE Beverages.

The packaging is instantly recognizable and the association with Holley’s Nitrous Oxide canisters has been well received by customers, vaulting NOS to No. 7 in the energy drink category.

Packaging Europe

With such similar looking packages in different product categories, is there any danger of consumer confusion, a la Skinny & Sweet?

(More confusion, after the fold…)

(more…)

January 10, 2012

TV Remote Bottle Openers

These four examples explored below…

1. The Clicker: a universal remote control with an integrated bottle opener feature, invented by David Dignam. ($24.99 with free shipping)

As with any good idea, the Clicker was inspired by hanging out with friends and drinking a few beers… in Wisconsin. David Dignam, the inventor of the Clicker, was traveling back home to New York from a long Thanksgiving weekend hanging with the guys in a small town in western Wisconsin (hometown to one of the guys). The idea hit him, “why not combine a universal remote control and bottle opener, and have one less thing to have to look for in your own home”. Thus, the Clicker was born, the ideal union of two of the most important items in the home: the remote control and bottle opener (for some people)

2. Magnetic Remote Control Shaped Bottle Opener: a sort of “fridge magnet” bottle opener that happens to be shaped like a TV remote. Does not appear to actually change channels. Buttons include “OK” and “Hello.” ($1.49)

“This bottle opener is designed with like real remote control appearance and it is quite absorbing. You may think it is a remote control when they take a glance. But it is a bottle opener in fact.”

3. The “2006 World Cup Party Edition” of the Philips Universal Remote Control. (Not sure if this is still available, but at one time it cost $12.50)

“With this special edition remote control you’ll be more than ready for the 2006 World Cup. It even comes with a bottle opener, scorecard and extra battery, so you won’t miss a moment of the action.”

4. The Pop Pops Remote Control Bottle Opener by Russ: a faux remote control, but a real bottle opener, packaged in a bottle-shaped blister pack. ($6.99)

“This cleverly designed remote control themed bottle opener is what you need to get the drinks and the conversation flowing! Hand painted, along with very detailed accents and a metal opener add style and functionality to this classic item.”

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

January 9, 2012

Delsym Package as Remote Control Unit

CPG as RCU. Delsym’s current advertising campaign imagines their product packaging as a television remote control for muting distracting family cough symptoms. (Detail of a print ad by Roy Tuck, on left)

(The print ad in its entirety, after the fold…)

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January 6, 2012

Washington I. Tuttle’s Collapsible Box

In addition to the “roly poly” Tindeco tobacco tins, another of Washington I. Tuttle’s patented package designs, was his 1908 “Collapsible Box.”

Similar to the idea that the “roly poly” tobacco tins could be used to store brownies, this package was meant to be reused as a lunch box:

“…this box is primarily intended, although not restricted, for use as an original package in which tobacco is sold, the box, after the contents originally placed therein have been used, having been found very serviceable as an extension lunch box or kit”

(More of Tuttle’s patent drawings, after the fold…)

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January 4, 2012

Roly Poly Tindeco Tobacco Tins

Photos via: Dan Morphy Auctions

In last month’s post about roly poly Santa and clown containers, there was one photo of a Santa-shaped tobacco tin. “Tindeco” was the company that originally came out with this type of anthropomorphic package design:

Around 1912 the Tin Decorating Company, aka Tindeco, produced round colorful tins to hold tobacco for the American Tobacco Company. American Tobacco controlled Tindeco, as well as the four brands of tobacco sold in these tins. Each container held about 1 lb of tobacco with the brand names Dixie Queen, Mayo, Red Indian and U.S. Marine. Apparently the company suggested that the tins be used as brownie containers after the tobacco was used and designed them accordingly.

The six original tins were Satisfied Customer (reproduction called Businessman), Storekeeper, Singing Waiter (reproduction called Singer), Mammy, Dutchman (reproduction called Cowboy), and Scotland Yard. According to "The Tin Can Book", the Satisfied Customer, Dutchman and Scotland Yard are the hardest to find. But for those collectors that want complete sets, six tins would not do it! A complete set would be eighteen tins. Mayo and Dixie Queen tobacco was packaged in all six designs and while Red Indian and U.S. Marine were only packaged in three different tins. One way these tins were identified was by little packages of tobacco shown on some of the packages. E.g., Mammy had a tiny tin in her front pocket.

Barbara Crews, Roly Poly Tobacco Tins, 2002

Not exactly the Droste-effect, but when anthropomorphic packages are shown handling packages that contain the same product that they, themselves, contain, the effect is similar. Even when these characters are not shown with packaging in their pockets, they all have tobacco packages behind their backs. (back packs)

On left: a close up of cross-promotional behind-the-back package illustration; on left a vintage Mayo’s Tobacco pack of the type depicted

Below the “Scotland Yard” character with “Dixie Queen” tobacco behind his back. (Lower right corner shows the vintage tobacco pack depicted.)

The “Singing Waiter” character also promoted “Dixie Queen” in an alternate package.

On left: drawing from Washington I. Tuttle’s package design patent; on right: Charles Weise’s patented “shopkeeper” design (both patents assigned to American Tobacco Company)