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May 16, 2011
Gumball Cube Pack
©2011 Randy Ludacer, Beach Packaging Design
Seeing projects like Sophie Valentine’s “Capitalism vs. Socialism” and Regina Rebele’s 2008 “Type-Cube” made me wonder if there was a practicable way that this type of “magic folding cube” could be designed as a box to actually contain something.
Ideally, I would have liked it best if the whole thing—all 8 boxes with tucks & glue flaps—could have been folded from a single die-cut shape. That doesn’t appear to be possible, although it was easy enough to get it down to just 4 pieces which must then be hinged together.
But what sort of product should such a package contain? Gumballs, I decided. Stupid, I guess, to envision such an elaborate package for such an inexpensive product, but demographically appropriate as a candy pack for kids. Like something that Topps might have considered doing in the 1970s. And as our video clearly shows, these gumballs really needed to be contained.
Anyway, this is just Gumball Cube-Pack Mach 1. There are some further structural improvements I have in mind to try next. (If you’re listening, Topps, please give us call. We’d love to hook you up.)
(Some still photos, after the fold…)
April 6, 2011
Package Design & Chattering Teeth
Top left: 1970 Talking Teeth box on ebay; on right: Talking Teeth box from That Restless Mouse; 2nd row, left: 1940s Yakity-Yak Talking Teeth box The Invisible Agent; on right: Neato Chattering Teeth from Radarsmum67’s Flickr Photostream; Bottom row: Talking, Chattering Teeth from Gold Nuggets Etsy shop
Yesterday’s denture-shaped candy package reminded me of these products… “Talking Teeth” … “Chattering Teeth” … “Talking, Chattering Teeth”…
Display box photos via The Magic Depot
(One more thing, after the fold…)
March 22, 2011
Package Design Conveyor Belt
Now open for business: our new web site features this interactive, conveyor belt style shelf showing Beach Packaging Design’s portfoilio. (Mouse over at either end to see more)
On the actual web site the small packages serve as the menu for selecting larger images. (Here they just convey themselves back & forth for your amusement.)
If you‘re in the market for some package design, please stop by.
Feel free to browse, but be careful. (You break it—you buy it!)
February 1, 2011
Wonder Bread Banks
3 types of Wonder bread loaf banks: hard plastic, die-cut paperboard and soft rubber/vinyl.
At first I was puzzled by the company’s persistence with the bread-package as piggy-bank idea, but then I thought: “the other kind of bread!”
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design
January 31, 2011
The Wonder Bread Anthro-Pack
In earlier versions of Wonder Bread’s anthropomorphic mascot—“Freddy, the Fresh Guy”—he is clearly a full-fledged anthropomorphic package—a loaf of bread in a branded bread bag. (In later versions he seems like a single slice of bread.)
The upper left photo, from Felixtcat’s Flickr Photostream is actually a rotating inflatable. (See inset on right)
Regarding the different outfits, my sense is that the Freddy with the bow tie is the earliest—(as in the upper center photo from Thomas Hawk’s Flickr Photostream)—but I could be wrong about that.
The upper right photo from Ken B. Miller's Flickr Photostream shows a costumed mascot in 2004 at the Philadelphia Zoo.
There were a number of anthro-pack premiums created, including the 1998 limited edition Freddy the Fresh Guy plush toy and the ring premium. (ring photos from Ruby Lane and from Tracy’s Toys)…
And along with the Fresh Guy antho-pack, there are also consumer costumes allowing one to inhabit a Wonder Bread persona…
See also: Packaging Costumes
(A “Fresh Guys” ad, after the fold…)
January 28, 2011
Wonder Bread Raincoat, etc.
1. Wendy Hill’s Wonder Bread raincoat, made for her sewing class in high school. (circa: 1960s)
2. Catherine McEver’s similarly waterproof bread bag outfits, envisioned for Barbie dolls. (See: Wonder Bread Barbies) This one is “Prom Barbie.” (circa 2010)
3. The Wonder® bread company, itself, appears to have also noticed this connection between rain gear and their plastic bread bag packaging, as evidenced by these complimentary rain bonnets (some of which are for sale on eBay)…
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design
January 21, 2011
Rat Fink Packaging
On left: packaging for Ed Roth licensed products from House Industries; on right: Rat Fink in a can of 1 Shot paint from Jalopy Journal
I was terrible at building models as a kid and was always a little disappointed that the plastic parts weren’t already colored since I couldn’t hope to paint them as nicely as the picture on the box. Still, when I was a kid in the sixties I remember asking for and receiving a Revelle Rat Fink model. I think it was one of the hot rod series, although I was really mainly into the rat…
Anyway, it seems I was in good company seeing as how House Industries co-founder, Andy Cruz was also into R.F.
“…Around this time, Cruz’s obsession with the Southern California hot-rod culture epitomized by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, the car builder and illustrator famed for his grotesque Rat Fink caricatures, and was spending all his extra money on Rat Fink models, iron-ons, decals and other ephemera. “It hit me one day,” he says. “Why not have my hobby work for me?” In 1996, Cruz’s revelation led to a licensed collaboration with Roth that yielded his Rat Fink font, a translation of Roth’s hand-lettered type into the digital realm.”
–Jesse Ashlock, AIGA
I’ve gotten plenty of use out of those Rat Fink fonts, but it’s interesting to learn the back story behind their getting into this area in such big way.
The most important part of inspiration is being true to one’s sources, so we jumped at the opportunity to work with hot rodding legend Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. Ed was a pop artist, accomplished letterer and a consummate self-promoter, which are all cues we took when conceptualizing our first foray into licensing. By combining our maniacal penchant for authenticity and our appreciation for Ed’s impact on the masses, we reintroduced his genius with eight fonts, 32 pieces of artwork and an authentic Revell-style model box.
“Rat Fink” House Industries
(Note: the can of 1 Shot paint in Rat Fink’s hand above)
(More of their pinstriping T-Shirt cans, after the fold…)
December 28, 2010
Orthographic Packaging for Herman Miller Blocks
Relating to our earlier post about packages that feature orthographic projection of their contents: these Herman Miller blocks by House Industries certainly do that, but here the direction of projection is flipped.
The carton—(based on the original Herman Miller furniture box “that was used to deliver American modernism”)—orthographically projects its panels inward, onto the sides of the blocks contained within.
What you see is still what you get, but the very nature of the product—the design of the blocks—is dictated by its packaging. (Rather than the other way around)
The package/product design also makes use of of House Industries’ Eames Century Modern fonts. (X-acto knife is just to show scale, I think.)
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design
December 27, 2010
Walkin’ Cigarette Pack
Looking at cigarette pack Christmas trees, I happened to see this 1960s Lark Walkin’ Cigarette Pack. (via: RubyLane.com)
I think there was also a Lucky Strike version of this wind up toy. The footprint motif on the carton is very reminiscent of the 1964 Hang Ten surfing brand logo…
Which led me in turn to this trademark page showing that in 1977 Philip Morris filed a trademark for “Hang Ten” cigarettes. (Which make me wonder: “Did they ever make any of those?”)
(More photos of the Walkin’ Cigarette Pack, after the fold…)
December 15, 2010
Lego Packaging
Lego packaging, three kinds:
1. CPG sculptures made out of Legos. (e.g.: David Hoffmann’s Krylon can above & T-Reichling’s Coke can below)
2. Self-similar Lego containers with lids designed to make them resemble Lego bricks. (Another example below)
3. The miniature doll-house-style packages that are included in certain Lego “Scala” kits. (Photos below via: ebay)
(More CPG sculptures, after the fold…)
November 29, 2010
Cigarette Pack Charms
Two Eppy miniature Tareyton cigarette packs via The Mule Wagon Antiques & Collectibles
Among the charms made to resemble tiny packages, cigarettes figure prominently. Some of these were kid’s vending machine charms, of the type we featured last Friday…
9 cigarette pack charms from Eureka Gumball Charm Nirvana
Not the sort of toys today’s parents would encourage their children to play with, but no surprise that toys like these would be around in the late 1950s and early 60s. (In those days, candy cigarette packs and the like were considered culturally acceptable products for children playing grown up.)
Other, earlier cigarette pack charms seem to have been intended for an older demographic…
Charm bracelet and charms via: WorthPoint.com
“American teenagers in the 1950s and early 1960s collected charms to record the events in their lives.”
Wikipedia entry on “Charm Bracelets”
If such charms were intended to commemorate significant teenage events, one has to wonder, “What milestones were being commemorated here?” Learning to smoke? Changing brands?
(More examples, after the fold…)
November 26, 2010
Packaging Charms
A revelation to me that supermarket gumball machines once contained miniature consumer packaged goods.
These photos from Eureka Gumball Charm Nirvana are only a small sampling of what’s out there for collectors of tiny supermarket charms.
(Some display cards, after the fold…)
November 23, 2010
Edge-Matching Puzzles
Following our recent puzzle/packaging thread, I learned about these promotional edge-matching puzzles on Rob’s Puzzle Page. (Photo on the right is from Rob’s page; photos above and below are from eBay)
Quite a few companies put out advertising-puzzle premiums based on Edwin Lajette Thurston’s 1892 patented puzzle. (Sometimes they’re called “Mystery Puzzles.”)
I like that the puzzle’s geometry requires the product packaging to be shown at every orientation—sideways, right-side-up, upside-down. I like the harlequin motif and the four-color mapping.
Pictorially, I think these would make such cool paintings—anachronistically bridging the gap between pop and op. They could be modular like the puzzle, itself, and hung up in different arrangements. (Even when they’re assembled incorrectly they still look great.)
(Thurston’s Patent and a Vess bottle cap “Mystery Puzzle,” after the fold…)
November 22, 2010
Back in the Boxes
Packaging for two products, each called “Back in the Box”
1. Back in the Box™ by Classic Games Company was a packing puzzle in which 17 tetrahedra of various sizes are fit back into a cube-shaped box.
Despite rectangular box inside, the shape of the package is more exotic. Appears to be rectangular box with one corner truncated to make a triangular top flap. A rare example of polyhedral puzzle packaging reflecting its unusually shaped contents, the truncated corner simulates the shape of the tetrahedrons inside. (Photos, on right and above, left are from Baxter Web Puzzles)
2. “Back in the Box” the 1994 seven-song "David Byrne" CD: design and photography by Deborah Norcross.
I like the blurry photo of the little box, and of course I want to know, what did it once contain that we are now meant to imagine going back in the box?
Note: track one is parenthetically entitled, “Vox in the Box mix”
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design
November 19, 2010
Naef Packaging
Yesterday’s exploration of nested packaging leads us inevitably back to subject of nesting toys and to German mathematician, Peer Clahsen’s “Cella.” (Designed for Naef in 1979) Again, these are like Matryoshka dolls—only more modern and geometric. As with the early Rubik’s cubes, the products are fascinating, but it’s also interesting to check out the graphic design of the original packaging.
I like the multicolored Naef logo with the stacked “a” and “e”—which seems related to Naef’s building block products, but in in a subtle way.
Naef’s version of a Rubik’s Cube
(Some videos of “Cella” & another Naef nesting toy, plus more vintage packaging, after the fold…)
November 18, 2010
Nested Packaging: Surprise Balls & Russian Dolls
Bombay Sapphire Layers Christmas Edition (via: Packaging of the World)
Super multi-layered packaging. On the one hand, it attracts and intrigues us. [See: surprise ball] It heightens the ritual of opening. So many layers—what the hell is in here? The diamond ring that comes in a refrigerator sized box.
On the other hand: super wasteful. So much packaging for such a little thing. You’re Amazon.com and your customers are getting pissed off. (photo below from Tamaraberg’s Flickr Photostream)
Sometimes the concept is naturalistic. (e.g. the layers of an onion) Other times, recursive like Matryoshka dolls (Russian nesting dolls).
A McDonald’s coupon promotion (via: PopSop)
(More layers of nested packaging, after the fold…)
November 8, 2010
Stick Horse Gum Pack
A vintage Wrigley’s ad promoting the digestive benefits of chewing gum: stick horse — stick of gum? (Maybe we’ll talk about the anthropomorphic arrow another time.)
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design
Kudos
Consumer/Culture
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Rob Walker’s Design Observer Blog
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The MKTG Tumblr Site
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Justin Kirkwood's brand fiction site
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The Unconsumption Tumblr Site
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What did you buy today?
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The Church of Stop Shopping
other pack-blogs
links
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The Man Who Moved Manhattan
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Belgian journalist, Tom Ronse's blog
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