packaging as content

August 12, 2011

Writing on Packages

While technocentric consumer culture continues its swoon over QR code packaging and the branding dialogue that it supposedly opens, there may be another trend worth noting: writing on packages.

Earlier this Summer, I noticed this huge speech bubble on the back of a box of Special K and I thought, “What on earth is that for?”

Reading the back of the cereal box, I learned that the big blank area was part of their “What will you gain when you lose?” campaign — (i.e.: when you lose weight). Consumers are invited to answer that question by uploading a picture of themselves with what they were hoping to gain—their “goal”—written on their box of Special K.

The gallery page of photos on the Special K website discloses that “some of the images are of paid participants.” I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that the women seeking to gain “Sass” and “Pep” may be in that category. (See also: Pep Brands Packaging)

Of course with any interactive marketing push of this type, some consumers may push back, as illustrated by The Restless Mouse’s message in the lower right hand corner. Not the sort of affirmation Special K was seeking, but a more meaningful show of strength, perhaps, than the word “strength” compliantly written on a cereal box muscle.

Another example of the writing-on-packages trend is the Budweiser Light “Write-On Label”—here the campaign doesn’t require online consumer feedback, although they do allude to “social networking”…

(More about “Write-On Labels, etc., after the fold…)

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July 18, 2011

Beverage Bubble Branding

Top left: Curious D’s Saint Tropez label (via); top, center: Andreu Zaragoza’ s “Coma” label (via); top, right: Nordic Water’s Foss Water; 2nd row, left: Hunt Adkin’s NutriSoda redesign (via); on right: an earlier version of Dry Soda’s labling; 3rd row: Hansen’s Natural Sparkling Water (via); bottom row: ELO Design’s “Vines Wine” (via)

For carbonated or “sparkling” beverages, it’s often the bubbles that are featured on the label. Usually these bubbles are represented by solid or outlined circles. Two exceptions:

1. Hanson’s sparkling water uses astroids rather than circles. This shape is more often associated with bling-type sparkles, but, here, seems to represent sparkling bubbles at the moment of popping. And by “popping” I mean: emerging from beverage and releasing its gas.

2. The Saint Tropez bottle in the upper left uses foil blocked square bubbles to create a dissipating typography.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

July 7, 2011

Donald Deskey’s Odorono Jar

Celebrated industrial designer, Donald Deskey is well-known for package design of iconic brands below. Perhaps less well-known, is his structural design of the “Odo-Ro-No” Cream Deodorant jar for Northam Warren Corporation.

Deskey packaging from the exhibit, “Creative Conscious: The Unconstrained Mind of Donald Deskey” (Photo via: Gilmore Branding)

Based on advertising images, Deskey’s art deco jar was in use during the 1940s. Haven’t been able to find any photos online of an actual surviving jar of this type.

The embossed lid was apparently discontinued sometime in the 1950s in favor of a plain flat version. (as with the pink one above)

Don’t know whether Deskey had anything to do with Odorono’s graphic design.

(Odorono’s trademark papers, after the fold…)

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June 16, 2011

Uncapped Landfill Bottle #3

Third bottle up is barnacle-covered with vertical, corduroy-like ridges. This bottle turns out to have once contained a Marcel Rochas men’s fragrance called, Moustache. Launched in 1948–49, the product is still available, but comes in a different shaped bottle with a sans-serif logotype. (During the 1950s the “Moustache” logotype was, itself, mustachioed.)

Sometimes these bottles were sold in boxed sets…

Sometimes these bottles included atomizer bulbs…

In addition to a “citrusy opening” note, the Moustache scent is said to also include “the urinous aroma of animalic notes that recalls horses’ sweat.” (Which is fitting, considering that I found my bottle in Dead Horse Bay—final resting place for so many 19th Century work horses.)

Moustache was clearly intended as a mens product, but like Irish Spring and riding horses, some women like it too…

After the citrusy opening, the characteristic faintly floral and hay-ish powdery heart slowly gives way to the funk of the base notes with their sweaty, urinous and pungent leather impression which lingers quietly, intimately for a long time. Despite it being, marketed as a masculine scent, women who find citrusy or "hazy" suede compositions to their taste should definitely give it a try.

Rochas Moustache: fragrance review & history
Perfume Shrine, september 7, 2009

I thought there might have been a design patent for this bottle, but if there was ever an American one registered, I could not find it.

(Although I did find one design patent by Marcel Rochas for something else entirely, after the fold…)

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June 9, 2011

Uncapped Landfill Jar #2

This eight sided jar has embossed letters on each panel which (if you start with the upper case “B”) spell out the brand “Barbasol.” Guessing that (prior to containing sand and seaweed) this jar must have once held shaving cream, I checked their website’s history section which confirms:

Over the years, Barbasol has been sold in a variety of packaging types and sizes. The Giant Jar was originally sold for 75¢.

As the photo on right shows, this jar originally came in a red, white and blue folding carton. That box apparently did not make it to Dead Horse Bay’s “bottle beach.” Nor did the jar’s cap. There are, however, a surviving examples to be found online…

(More Barbasol jar photos, after the fold…)

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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…)

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May 13, 2011

Capitalist Box vs. Socialist Box

I saw this a while back on Packaging UQAM:

Sophie Valentine’s project for Louis Gagnon’s “Design Graphique Introduction” course at Canada’s UQAM. The project is “3D Typographic Expression” and her solution is shown above.

Socialism and capitalism are two realities that clearly oppose. However, Winston Churchill did not consider one better than the other. He said: “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” To demonstrate this paradox, socialism is represented by eight small cubes attached to each other. While capitalism is represented by a cube equal to the size of eight.

Design Intro Blog

This interests me for a number of reasons.

A. The white “socialist” cube appears to be one of those hinged folding cube puzzles — sometimes called “magic cubes” — often used as an advertising promotion. I might be wrong. It may be hinged a little differently, but it would be ironic for “socialism” to be represented by an promotional object.

B. The Winston Churchill quote above seems to parallel the contrast that Chevron CEO, John Watson attempted (in his testimony to congress yesterday about oil company tax breaks) when he tried to suggest that the American people would rather share in Chevron’s prosperity than to have Chevron share in their sacrifice. (See also: Joe, The Plumber)

(More reasons, after the fold…)

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April 26, 2011

Scott H. Perky’s Symmetrical Typeface Patent

In addition to inventing round shredded wheat, Scott H. Perky also patented an audacious font concept in 1909. Citing the inefficiencies of reading only from left to right, Perky proposed a symmetrical font that would allow books to be typeset in lines of alternating direction…

The invention consists in certain means of printing alternate lines, whereby the reading can be done from left to right and from right to left in a continuous manner, and the skipping from end of one line to the opposite end of the next is avoided.

It is hardly necessary to allude to the strain upon the eyes and brain, which results from much reading. To students, researchers and others whose lives are cast among books, any device which promises to … lessen fatigue of the optical tract, and consequent headache and brain fag, will appear of unusual importance. In ordinary reading … the brain is exerted through the eyes in movements from left to right with alternate senseless skippings from right to left …

In carrying out this invention it is designed to use a font of type, whereof each… letter, number or other character… is of symmetrical form… and is thus adapted to present the same appearance whether read backward or forward…

In reading print of this character… difficulty will at first be found owing to the unaccustomed appearance of the symmetrical characters, but in a limited amount of time, the mind becomes familiar with them and this trouble will disappear. And in the continuous hold of the eye and mind on the text, as the reading proceeds, without skipping or losing place or connection, will be found much compensation.

from the text of Patent No. 921,156

Note: the highlighted phrase “brain fag” is no typo:

The term “brain fag” was used in the US as far back as 1852, describing an overworked brain, in 1877 to describe mental exhaustion in professionals similar to neurasthenia, and later in 1919 to describe mental fatigue in the elderly. The term ‘fag’ is believed to have been derived from ‘fatigue’. This American usage declined by the 1950s.

from Wikipedia entry on Brain Fag

The other phrase “senseless skippings” is highlighted because I thought it was kind of poetic for a patent.

(The first 3 lines of Perky’s patent, set in his patented font, after the fold…)

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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…)

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March 30, 2011

Grape Nuts: Packaging as Wardrobe

In 1930, Grape-Nuts ran the ad (below, right) comparing their new package to a new dress. Signaling a shift from muscular, anthropomorphic boxes endlessly insisting “There’s a Reason” (for eating Grape-Nuts, that is) to a less dour (less manly?) sales pitch… (via)

Probably the millions of people who enjoy Grape-Nuts would like to know why the package has been changed…

Well, the chief reason is that we wanted to make the package brighter, gayer, more suggestive of the fresh deliciousness of Grape-Nuts…

Maybe your grocer hasn’t received the new packages as yet. It takes time to distribute over the whole country, you know. But whether you buy Grape-Nuts to-day in the old package or the new package—the food itself is the same delicious food… and the new package has the same generous quantity as the old.

Maybe not the first company to ever equate packaging with clothing, but if packages are dresses, then Grape-Nuts now must have a closet full of them…

Top, left: from Mr. Breakfast; top, middle: from Hakes.com; top, right: from Mr. Breakfast; 2nd row, left: detail of an ad from Grickily’s Flickr Photostream; billboard on bottom from Roadside Pictures’ Flickr Photostream

The evolution of Grape-Nuts boxes from the 1950s through the 1960s shows a shift of target demographic from men to women. Culminating in the 1960s television ads which featured adult women being mistaken for their teenage daughters due to the figure-enhancing effect of Grape-Nuts for breakfast. (The Billboard above with the tape measure around a slim-waisted Grape-Nuts box is part of that “Fills you up, not out” campaign.)

Photo on left from: bolio88’s Flickr Photostream; on right from: Gregg Koenig's Flickr Photostream

On left: from bluwmongoose’s Flickr Photostream

Interestingly, the demographic pendulum seems to be swinging back the other way now…

“We need to bring it back to life in a relevant way,” says Kelley Peters, the “insights” director who charts Grape Nuts psychographics for Ralcorp’s $5 million resuscitation attempt. Her target: men 45 years old and up. “Men aspire to it,” she says. “It’s strong and stern, the father figure of cereals.” Her marketing chief, Jennifer Marchant, points out: “It tends to break your teeth sometimes.”

No Grapes, No Nuts, No Market Share: A Venerable Cereal Faces Crunchtime
Barry Newman, Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2009

Although, there’s a reason that, in the 1950s, Grape-Nuts touted a new product improvement on billboards and packages: “New! Easier to chew!”

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

February 15, 2011

More Drips

More drip/droplet packaging. Following up on an earlier post about this trend, I’m seeing more examples…

1. Magic marker brand, Krink is doing the Absolut Vodka thing, on left—thereby making the connection between packaging drips and graffiti absolutely explicit. (via: PopSop)

2. The single golden drip featured on Moruba’s label design for Karey Olive Oil (center) is more an illustration of package contents and about as far from expressionistic graffiti style as you can get. Have to admire the astute typographic insight that enabled the designer to see the discreet teardrop that was always latent in that sideways “y.” (via: the dieline)

3. Mystery packs: I don’t know where I found the blue-yellow-red bath set bottles, on right. I have lost track of my source. (If anyone knows, please tell me; I don’t like making them anonymous.) The dripping paper collar loops that cover the caps and tuck-in are interesting. The connotations here (for dripping primary colors) seem to be more painterly—less “street art.”

(A video of the Krink/Absolut bottle, after the fold…)

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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…)

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January 19, 2011

1 Shot Beer & Cigarettes

Following our “1 Shot” paint thread, brings us to Lance Freitag’s “1 Shot Paint / Limited Edition Package”

“This project was for my typography 4 class… I decided to do a special package for the pinstriping culture. I used 1 Shot paint as my company, they play a very large roll in the culture. I rebranded 1 shot, I didn’t want to use their existing logo.”

Lance Freitag on Behance

Debated with myself whether it would be just too obnoxious to put a “[sic]” after “culture” since it’s gernerally kulture with a “K” in this context…

Interesting, that Freitag’s package contains beer & cigarettes, rather than paint. Another attempt to combine smoking & drinking under the banner a single popular brand? Seems like a long shot to envision a paint company getting into alcohol & tobacco, but no crazier than Marlboro Beer, I suppose.

(See also: our earlier posts during Smoking & Drinking Week)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

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 21, 2010

Mallomars Evolve

The evolution of Nabisco Mallomar packaging… From “cakes” to “cookies” and more recently from flat typography to 3-dimensional, marshmallow letters with an outer dark-chocolate stroke and multiple drop shadows. Subscribing to the theory that product logos are more effective if they simulate the texture and composition of the product, itself. (As with another Nabisco cookie whose logo is made to resemble a “creme” filling)

The inset photo on right of Mallomar’s 1953 Cellophane pack is via: The Karmic Kitchen.

Below: a press proof of an earlier Mallomars wrapper (1930s–1940s ?) from Jason Liebig’s extensive packaging collection on Flickr.

(A video concerning Mallomars’ “seasonal” issue, after the fold…)

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December 7, 2010

One Year (in the life of George Maciunas)

Top left photo from l_c_m_tt_’s Flickr Photostream

At MOMA until May 9, 2011: George Maciunas’s “One Year”

ONE YEAR (1973-1974) is a art installation by Lithuania-born American artist George Maciunas (1931-1978) consisting of the empty containers of various food and household products that he consumed over the course of one year. The work reflects the American consumer landscape of the early 1970s and the monotony of Maciunas’ daily regimen.

(via: NYC ♥ NYC)

(If you click on the top left photo and look closely, you will note that, in addition to food, Maciunas consumed a lot of asthma medications. This helps to explain what follows, after the fold….)

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August 11, 2010

Angostura Bitters Packaging

Yesterday’s post about the beaded bottle, led me to the subject of Angostura Bitters.

I associate “bitters” with patent medicines of the 1800s and, indeed, Angostura Bitters started out as a health tonic in 1824. Unlike most patent medicines, however, consumers of Angostura Bitters found other uses for the product.

Some consumer products were once marketed as patent medicines, but have been repurposed and are no longer sold for medicinal purposes. Their original ingredients may have been changed to remove drugs, as was done with Coca-Cola. The compound may also simply be used in a different capacity, as in the case of Angostura Bitters, now associated chiefly with cocktails.

Wikipedia—Patent Medicines: Products no longer sold under medicinal claims

Regarding the label:

Angostura’s unusual oversized label derives from Trinidad’s laid back philosophy. One day a new batch of labels were ordered and a simple sizing error meant that the labels were a little larger than normal. Rather than fix the problem, which was spotted in good time, they kept the faulty batch of labels, thinking that someone would eventually go about the task of correcting the error. No one did. So when the current supply of labels ran out, they simply attached the oversized labels, thinking that someone would correct the next batch. No one did. Again. And thus was born a trademark that is recognized throughout the world.

spiritsandcocktails.com

Despite its 19th Century origins and happy-accident label branding, the company still has found ways to extend its product line and to provide work for graphic designers. Above, is Robert Henry LLC’s label for Angostura Orange Bitters. (See also: Package as Skin)

But the most surprising thing to me about Angostura Bitters, is how recently this 19th Century product has been in the news—and essentially because of problems with its packaging!

(Rachel Maddow and the Angostura Bitters shortage, after the fold…)

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