packaging as content

April 17, 2012

Art & Kitty Litter

On left is one of Robert Gober’s 1989 “Fine Fare Cat Litter” sculptures. (From an edition of seven)…

With Cat Litter, Gober invokes a “hand-made-ready-made”, stemming from the Duchampian tradition. While Marcel Duchamp chose everyday, industrially produced objects as his ready-made works and elevated them to the status as an art object in the act of re-producing and declaring them to be so, Gober scrupulously recreates an already existing product; Gober uses plaster-casting and then paints by hand the imagery to imitate the real object.

In speaking about the Cat Litter sculptures, Gober explains, “The kitty litter I never saw as being that far a step from the wedding dress…for me the kitty litter was to a large degree a metaphor for a couple’s intimacy – that when you make a commitment to an intimate relationship, that involved taking care of that other person’s body in sickness and in health. If I had chosen to do a box of diapers, which is an equivalent of a bag of cat litter, it would have been obvious. But because I was juxtaposing a low symbol which a high symbol and a deflated symbol with an inflated one, people had a very hard time reconciling the two, and they had a hard time, I think, seeing that I could be connecting the two with some respect”

Robert Gober: Sculpture + Drawing, 1999 (via: Phillips de Pury & Company)

Fine Fare is a New York “Metro Area” supermarket chain. (There was also a UK “Fine Fare” but I don’t believe they are connected.) I like their multi-colored pinwheel logo on the Gober sculpture, which I think has inherent fine art associations having to do with color wheels and additive color mixing. The animated gif on the right is not from Fine Fare’s logo, but from the website of package printer, J.M. Fry Printing Inks.

(See also: Untitled Packaging Sculptures)

–Randy Ludacer

March 26, 2012

Majestic Milk and Package Receiver

I found this photo on my computer. It was from a batch of photos that my son took last year at a friend’s new (old) house.

When I was a kid growing up in Florida my parents used to have an insulated milk box in the driveway where the milkman delivered our milk, but I’d never heard of these built-in “milk and package receivers.” So I thought I should maybe look into it…

Here and there, you can find other photos of them online.

Upper left: from Kodamakitty’s Flicker Photostream; on right: from tjunedavis’s Flickr Photostream; lower left and lower right: from Albany (NY) Daily Photo

I also found the company’s 1927 product catalog…

“The Majestic Milk and Package Receiver makes it possible to receive milk, groceries and other parcels without going outside or opening a door of the house. Two cast iron frames and doors connected by an adjustable steel body are installed in the wall of the kitchen…

Both of the doors can be unlocked from the inside only. The delivery man deposits the articles in the Receiver from the outside. When he closes the outside door it locks automatically and can not be opened again until the latch is released by an extended chain on the inside, making the Receiver ready for further deliveries. The Majestic Receiver is inconspicuous, occupies no needed space and gives protection against weather, annoyance, theft and intrusion.”

Like “dumb waiters,” the Majestic Milk and Package Receiver was promoted as a replacement for people —(a “silent, automatic servant”)— in much the same way that rise of packaging also served to replace people. (See: Fallout Shelter Packaging)

The catalog’s photo-illustrations of the milkman delivering the milk outside and the woman in the kitchen receiving it through the wall, also calls to mind the Automat, another early 20th Century concept for avoiding unwanted human interactions.

(We look further into the Majestic Milk and Package Receiver, after the fold…)

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February 23, 2012

XYZ Boxes

On left: Radeon’s X-shaped box for their HD 4890 graphics card; center: a Y-maze box; on right: Jeffrey Love’s Z-shaped box for Sprint’s Muziq Phone

OK, I know. One of these things is not like the others. I had a little trouble finding a suitable Y-shaped consumer package to fill out my high-concept trio.

And while the Y-maze box (above center) can serve as a temporary container for rodents, it really isn’t the letter-shaped, retail package that I initially had in mind.

None-the-less, the other two boxes are for consumer electronics and I would submit to you that there is something inherently digital about a laboratory rat (or mouse) confronting the binary choice contained in this box. (left = 1; right = 0)

(And speaking of rats & typography, see also: IlliteRAT.)

–Randy Ludacer

October 17, 2011

3 More Accordion Packs

In August we looked at some accordion-like packages that featured “bellows” mechanisms that allowed them to expand and contract. More examples have been popping up recently…

1. Nick Seville’s “Shaker Straws” duplicate the effect of a bendable straw. His solution to an assignment about packaging-as-added-value:

“…the brief was to repackage a pound shop item to make it worth double the price. This was achieved by creating a product that stood out on the shelves and made it more interactive for the customer to get a feel for the product.”

Consumers might regard it as a cynical ploy —a package designed to double the price of an item— but it does serve as an important reminder that an elaborate package will surely increase the retail price of a product.

2. Éva Valicsek’s “egg box” uses an accordion-like structure for egg packaging. Here the structure mainly serves to provide stabililty for the eggs, but the flexibility of the bellows structure allows the eggs to be easily inserted or removed from the carton.

Her labeling scheme also includes the barcode as a graphic design element —(similar to a CD package we looked at in 2009).

3. Directions Marketing’s “Tritainer” dog food concept (Grand Prize Winner in “Project 2020: The Consumer Experience”) makes compression a key feature:

“Accordion-type compression reduces container height as product is dispensed, and when empty, the container eventually folds flat for easy recyclability.”

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

September 28, 2011

Pet Food Package Design: Die Cut Paw Prints

Similar “paw print” shaped windows on different brands of pet food.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

September 8, 2011

Cigarettes & Cat Food

“Some people with NSRED [nocturnal sleep-related eating disorder] have even been known to eat cigarettes and cat food.”

TheStressOfLife.com

______________________________________________________

The Broward Sheriff’s Office said Thursday it was looking for two men suspected of burglarizing more than a dozen vehicles in Parkland.

Deputies said the men are suspected of breaking into a man’s Cadillac in Parkland on July 1 and stealing a wrist watch and a credit card. The suspects then went on a shopping spree at a CVS pharmacy in Boca Raton, buying cat food and cigarettes, authorities said.

Sun Sentinel, 2007

______________________________________________________

“He draped a black sheet over the picture window in his bedroom and did not answer the phone. He went out only to buy cigarettes and cat food, wearing a black sweatshirt, the hood pulled down over his eyes.”

Mental Health: The Profession Tests Its Limits
By Erica Goode and Emily Eakin
NY Times, September 11, 2002

For people in a certain demographic group we’ll call “cat-loving smokers,” these two items —cigarettes & cat food— form their most pared down, irreducible shopping list of basic necessities.

The cigarette packs and cat food cans pictured above, however, are shown together, not because my shopping list has come to that, but because they are each examples of “incomplete package design” — packages that may look a little incomplete by themselves, but are designed to form a larger whole when combined.

1. Cigarettes

These, of course, are the same Winston cigarette packages that we were wondering about yesterday. We now know that these were designed in 1997 by Kevin Flatt as a Senior Designer for Duffy.

The packaging was featured at length in the July 1997 issue of “Caravan” the in-house magazine of R.J.Renolds.

“The new packaging style carries the traditional Winston family fonts and red-white-red color scheme, but takes on a contemporary feel with a wraparound pack.”

via: Tobacco Documents Online

2. Cat Food

Milton Glaser’s extensive redesign for Grand Union (1970s though 1980s) included the cat food box (above, left) in which cropped cat photos on the front of the boxes, combined to form whole cats when displayed in a group. (See inset photo on right from: The Graphic Designer’s Guide to Clients)

“…some fun with partial images that relies upon store workers to line up the boxes correctly.”

A Grand Union, Beth Kleber
October 6, 2010
Container List, Glaser Archives

Grand Union’s canned cat food, also included some fun with partial images. The pet food packaging on right is from the portfolio of Blake Waldman (Paperkut Design) who was a Junior Designer at Milton Glaser, Inc. from 1989-1990.

Waldman also designed a 2002 version of the Winston wrap-around pack called the “Evo flask.” See: Winston debuts ‘flask’ pack

(And apropo of nothing: Yogi Berra on Camel Cigarettes and Puss ’n Boots Cat Food, after the fold…)

(more…)

August 23, 2011

New Package Design for Warm Whiskers Eye Pillow

Another booth that we visited at Gift Fair last week was DreamTime, Inc. The new packaging for their line of Warm Whiskers eye pillows caught my eye, because of the way the product conceals the eyes of its face-shaped die cut cards.

I’m always on the lookout for packaging that functions as an anthropomorphic proxy—either for the seller or, in this case, for the consumer. It’s a wonderfully direct way of showing the product’s purpose—showing the eye pillow in use on a person’s face—but oddly attention-getting precisely because the person’s eyes are hidden.

Personally, I felt compelled to lift the mask up and peak underneath—just to confirm that there were actually eyes printed there! That kind of interaction with the product and its packaging can’t be a bad thing. (And I have, in the past, ruminated about why a retail package should never stare the consumer down.)

Previously this product was packaged in a fancy, but generic organdy bag.

The new cards come with an easel back for counter display and a hang hole to make them peggable. I’m not too crazy about the wishy-washy brand logo, but (to my eye) the packaging concept, the girly illustrations and the cute products more than make up for it.

I don’t have photos of them, but I also recall seeing anthropomorphic die cut displays for stuffed animal “neck wraps” at their booth…

(More about the “neck wraps” after the fold…)

(more…)

May 24, 2011

Cat Head Packaging

Yesterday, Paul Heidenreich from Australian firm, The Grain Creative Consultants, emailed me their design refresh for Whiskas cat food, on right. Whiskas is a brand that I wasn’t familiar with, but the iconic cat-head shape of their logo reminded me of another cat food carton that I’ve been saving a picture of: Elmwood’s “Purely” cat food box for Pets at Home, with the cat-head shaped die cut window.

Which led me to notice other cat head shaped cat food packs…

These Whiskas pet treat containers were (I think) designed by Nick Brown.

Meow Mix and Purina Friskies, each employ cat head shapes in their cat treat containers. (Note the cat-head “M” in the pictorial Meow Mix logo. Anyone know who designed this feline logotype?)

Eric Hart’s canned cat food project, “Snookums” also features cat heads, although in his case they are sans-ears.

(A couple more things, after the fold…)

(more…)

September 30, 2010

Packaging & the Saint Bernard Barrel

On Left: a photo by Daniel Steger showing the rescue cognac/brandy keg commonly associated with Saint Bernard dogs; on right: homemade St. Bernard gear, apparently made from a brown plastic “Barrel of Monkeys” toy container—note the logo. (Photo via: Tremble.com

Above: details from two vintage magazine ads, both substituting the traditional keg/barrel with more contemporary alcoholic beverage packaging. (Both ads in their entirety are shown at the end of this post)

According to Wikipedia, although bred as rescue dogs, “The monks of the St. Bernard Hospice deny that any St. Bernard has ever carried casks or small barrels around their necks.” Apparently this is just a popular myth, possibly started by a painting.

Nevertheless, the myth has been perpetuated and stoked by brandy brands like Hennssey and others…

The implied health benefit—the idea of brandy that could be used as a life-saving elixer—was not lost on other alcoholic beverage manufacturers. Hence, the tongue-in-cheek use of St. Bernards in Michelob Beer and Smirnoff Vodka advertising.

Still, packages that refer to St. Bernard dogs are nowhere near as common as references to barrels in general. I couldn’t find any St. Bernard shaped brandy bottles, for example…. although the “Booze Hound” decanter below left is cute. (Its nose is a cork.)

On left: “Booze Hound” decanter; on right: ubiquitous Avon cologne bottle—their contribution to this concept—(and nearly any other figural bottle theme you can think of)

(More St. Bernard packaging, after the fold…)

(more…)

September 8, 2010

Rat-Nip Rebranded?

Following yesterday’s thread about rodenticide manufacturers alluding to pets, I thought “Rat-Nip” an insidiously playful name.

“RAT-NIP is a genuine rat confection, rats love it just the way cats love CAT-NIP. Not a rat can resist it.”

–from an ad in the Journal of The Jamaica Agricultural Society, 1911

In 1908 The Futon Chemical Company registered the trademark for RATNIP on the left.
In 1923 NIP-CO Manufacturing, Inc. registered the trademark for RAT NIP on the right. Both are trademarks for a rat poison, but I can’t tell for sure whether they are the same product rebranded or confusingly similar trademarked product names.

The hand-lettered Ratnip trademark on left (described as a “drawing with words in stylized form”) to my 20th Century eyes, skews to psychedelic. It reminds me now of certain House Industries fonts. (Not surprising, given that a lot of psychedelic typography was indeed based on early, turn-of-the-Century sources.)

I haven’t been able to find any packaging or advertising with this hand-lettered version of the logo, but, given that the back-slanting, sans-serif logo (on right) wasn’t even registered until 1923, I’m guessing there may be some bottles or jars out there with the hand-lettered logo. All of the packaging that I’ve found so far—(like the box on right from ChangoBlanco’s Flickr Photostream)—uses the 1923 trademark.

When I first saw the back-slanting Rat-Nip logo I figured it was from the 1940s or 50s and that the wacky backward leaning type was meant to imply knocking rats over backwards—corresponding to the upside down victim in the illustration with the lighting bolt.

But another name that appears on the back of some Rat-Nip packages is The Liquid Veneer Company. “Liquid Veneer” was a furniture polish and their trademark, registered in 1906, is strikingly similar to the back-slanting Rat-Nip logo.

In fact, if you take a look at early “Liquid Veneer” packaging—also red, yellow & black; also with a back-slanting logo—it starts to look as if Rat-Nip’s packaging was designed in the “house style” of Liquid Veneer.

(More Rat-Nip packaging, after the fold…)

(more…)

September 7, 2010

Rough on Rats

“Rough on Rats” was a turn of the Century rat poison brand from Jersey City manufacturer, proprietor—(& sometime music publisher)—E.S. Wells.

Ephraim S. Wells invented a rodent-elimination product in 1872. His wife jokingly called the poison “Rough on Rats.” The name stuck, and the product was a huge success.

The Chicago Tribune)

Promoted as a leading cause of cat unemployment, the inclusion of cats in “Rough on Rats” advertising also highlights our discriminatory hiring practices with regards to animals. (Pets versus pests: the animals that we humans want around, and the animals we don‘t.)

Pets were also featured in the 1882 promotional “Rough on Rats” song, although the lyrics were as rough on pets as they were on rats. The chorus:

“R-r-rats! Rats! Rats! Rough on Rats, Hang your dogs and drown your cats:
We give a plan for every man to clear his house with Rough on Rats”

(Via: The Virtual Dime Museum)

(See the sheet music, after the fold…)

(more…)

September 3, 2010

More Rat Bottles

On left: Rattankiller packaging by H & K + S; on right: Black Rat Cider

It turns out, there were other rat bottles: not poison, but willing to be mistaken for such.

Rat-poison-style beverage packaging raises certain saftey concerns. (Similar to candy looking like medicine and vice-versa)—(or Skinny n Sweet, for that matter)

For a consumer to briefly mistake a beverage for rat poison is harmless, but to even briefly mistake rat poison for a beverage…

Clearly some consumers like the idea of drinking rat posion—(as in: Name your poison!)—but if that is true, then what do rats like to drink?

Owners of pet rats sometimes like to attribute to their rats, a human-like affinity for bottled spirits—as the 3 photos, above, from Alexey Krasavin’s Flickr Photostream suggest.

And, indeed, stories can be found to suggest that rats have been known to acquire a taste for the stuff:

Rats are gnawing at beer cans and making holes in caps of whisky bottles stored in police storehouses in eastern India and apparently getting drunk, authorities said on Wednesday.

The rodents’ love for liquor has the police department in Bihar state stumped as it tries to store hundreds of bottles seized from illegal sellers from across the state in Patna, the state capital, said Kundan Krishnan, a senior officer.

“We are fed up with these drunk rats and cannot explain why they have suddenly turned to consumption of alcohol,” he said.

…Rats were also attacking people near the police buildings, nibbling at their toes, although it was not clear if they were under the influence, officials and witnesses said.

via Scribal Terror

But not all rat bottles are 100 Proof…

(Another type of rat bottle, after the fold…)

(more…)

September 2, 2010

Rat Bottles

Cowley’s embossed rat poison bottle from Ruby Lane

Couldn’t do an entire “animal bottle” week without finding at least one rat bottle: Cowley’s Original Rat & Mouse Poison came in bottles with an embossed rat. (Not super-old, just 1940s old.)

I might have preferred to find some rat-shaped “bitters” bottles similar to yesterday’s pig bottles. But if being partial to rats, means I have to write about rat poison, then so be it…

The active ingredient in Cowley’s rat poison (it should be noted) was arsenic…

Among our cases, liquid rodenticide was the most common source of arsenic for both intentional and unintentional poisonings in Mississippi. Fifteen of the 27 unintentional poisonings… were by ingestion of a liquid rodenticide… One recent Mississippi case of an accidental arsenic poisoning involveding three children occurred when a mother poured arsenic-based rodenticide over crackers and left them on the floor overnight. Three of her children ate the poisoned crackers the next morning. Specifically, Cowley’s Rat and Mouse Poison was named as the brand of arsenic-containing rodenticide in each of the 16 cases where a brand name was recorded. This product is no longer being manufactured, and thus its registration with the Mississippi Department of Agriculture, Division of Plant Industries, has not been renewed since 1988. Previously stocked bottles of this rodenticide, however, remain on Mississippi store shelves, available for open public purchase.

Arsenic Exposures in Mississippi: A Review of Cases
Mary Jane Park, BS, and Mary Currier, MD, MPH, Jackson, Miss
Southern Medical Journal, April 1991

I did find one non-poisonous rat bottle similar to one of Tuesday’s squirrel bottles.

(One last photo, after the fold…)

(more…)

August 31, 2010

Squirrel Bottles

Above, three kinds of squirrel bottle.

1. Above, left: An 1800s Squirrel Bottle from the Moravian potters of Old Salem, North Carolina. (another style with mold on right)

“Of all the bottles produced at Salem, the squirrel form was the most popular, resonant of the general popularity of gray squirrels and flying squirrels as pets. The squirrel bottle, based on the Eastern gray squirrel, was in production as early as 1803. An 1806 pottery inventory lists 96 squirrel bottles. Two types of squirrel-form bottles survive: one that stands erect clasping a nut in its paws, sometimes with a spout in the tail, and the other leans forward and looks upward as if startled or begging.”

Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo
Art In Clay: Masterworks Of North Carolina Earthenware

2. Above, right: a 1960s Rocky—(the flying squirrel)—Colgate Soaky Shampoo bottle—shown with partner, Bullwinkle, the moose, in photo on right. (Soaky bottle photos from: Vintage Toy & Diecast Collectibles)

In a bottle related lead-in to commercials on the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon show, Rocky finds a bottle washed up on the beach:

Rocky: Look, Bullwinkle, a message in a bottle.

Bullwinkle: Fan mail from some flounder?

Rocky: No, this is what I really call a message.

At the end of this conversation, Rocky holds up the message for the viewers at home to see. I couldn’t find an image of that, but what I recollect seeing there was a spiral-shaped scrawl.

3. Above, center photo: this Summer, Scottish microbrewery, Brewdog used taxidermied squirrel bottles (and other taxidermied rodents as well) for their limited edition “The End of History” beer.

(More taxidermied packaging, after the fold…)

(more…)

July 5, 2010

Dynamite, Firecrackers, TNT

Top left: Johnny Cupcakes Firecracker T-Shirt (via: Lovely Package); top right: Mélanie Boucher’s dynamite shaped concept package for “sparkling chocolate powder” (via: Packaging Uqam); 2nd row, left: “Fudge Dynamite” (see also “Fudge Torture Tonic”); 3rd row, left: TNT Tea packaging from Cafe Grumpy (via: NotCot); on right: “Roasted Cocoa NIBS” from Askinosie Chocolate (via: Embody3D); 4th rwow, left & below right: Dynamite Bites; 5th row, left: Harry’s Firecracker Hot Sauce; on right; under NIBS: Black Rock Powder’s “Dynamite” fire starters crate (via: Cabala’s); 6th row, left: a vintage firecracker-shaped toy via ebay; on right dynamite-six-pack concept by Bonita Nowick; bottom photo of firecracker candy from Dawn Endico’s Flickr Photostream

Today is the 5th of July. I have a summer cold and didn’t sleep well due to late-night firecrackers in the neighborhood. (I am on edge and you do not want to set me off.)

We’ve looked at other ballistic packaging concepts—(hand-grenades; Molotov cocktails, etc.)—but this is supposedly of a more celebratory type. (Although dynamite and TNT are, perhaps, more fittingly associated with mining.)

(Some related examples, after the sputtering fuse…)

(more…)

April 7, 2010

Looking Into the Mouth of Food Packaging

Top left: Triska Snack bags by Barcelona-based SeriesNemo (via Packaging of the World); on right: “Beariez” concept package for granola by Chris DeLorenzo (via: the Dieline); 2nd row, left: Tohato Caramel Corn bags from Pkoceres’ Flickr Photostream; on right: Vilpuri Packaging design by Helsinki-based Hasan & Partners (via: Golden Drum); 3rd row, left: “Coleman Kids” concept by Sutasinee Seitz (via: The Dieline); on right: cat treat box concept by Sara Strand ; 4th row: “Venz Rimboe” chocolate spread jars (via: Rexam); bottom row: Bit-o-Luv dog treat bags by Andre Fiorini at Ground Zero (via: the Dieline)

A subset of packaging with meaningful die cut windows are those food packages that feature wide open mouths, through which one may view what appear to be the package contents. I say “appear to be” because, while some of the windows are truly revealing, some of the windows are faux.

Not a new idea, but one that seems quite well-suited to food packaging. No, we’re not supposed to chew with our mouths open, but looking into the mouth of these “satisfied customers” apparently triggers in us some monkey-see-monkey-do impulse to consume.

Interesting to note that while only a couple of the examples above are pet-food packages, almost all of the mouths belong to animals. (I’m not sure whether the Tohato Caramel Corn face is an animal or not.)

(Some TV commercials, after the fold…)

(more…)

February 21, 2010

Dead Rabbits and Carrots Beer

Promotional packaging for San Francisco’s Carrots Boutique by advertising firm, Pereira & O’Dell. (Package design variously credited to Chris M. Romero and also Dan Van Der Deen.)

The objective was to create a buzz around this high-end fashion boutique (CARROTS) and specifically around their men’s line, driving new male customers into the store. We created a limited edition, designer beer made from carrots. We brewed the beer, handcrafted the bottle wraps, and applied the labels. The 22(oz.) burlap-wrapped bottles were hand-delivered as gifts to specifically targeted men and the 12(oz.) beers were served at CARROTS-sponsored events and in-store to enhance men’s shopping experiences. Among the hundreds that received the bottle as a gift and the ones that tried it in the store, many people actually placed orders for beer to take home, turning a unique promotional item into a sexy and successful new product. Not to mention creating a buzz around the store.

–Pereira & O’Dell

The label and package design caters to the (presumably male) cartoon sensibility, wherein deceased creatures have X’s for eyes. Hence: a dead rabbit icon whose X-shaped eyes are also echoed in the orange stitching of the burlap “bottle wrap”. The burlap is another macabre touch, wrapping the bottle in a sort of burial shroud. The effect is dark and portentous—albeit in a cute, Tim Burton-ish sort of way.

This is a beer made from carrots, (for a store named “Carrots”) so that explains the rabbit. But why dead? “Dead rabbit” could be taken as a reference to girls getting pregnant—(as in “the rabbit died”)—but that seems unlikely to be the message here…

There was also a “Dead Rabbits” gang in NYC in the 1850s whose story was fictionalized in Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. (Again: not likely the intentional reference for us here.)

Is the idea just that Carrots Beer packs such a punch that our rabbit is merely knocked out and not dead at all? That might be closer to it… Plus, multiple Xs have implications with regard to alcoholic beverage quality and —(in the public’s cartoon imagination, at least)— with regard to alcohol potency. Think: XXX.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

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