As a brand designer I’m often on the look out for more efficient, creative and resourceful ways to package my daily necessities (coffee, beer, food, ie all the good things in life). This is a personal and professional fascination of mine, and I think it’s something worth looking at, not only from a current design perspective, but also from a historical anthropological one. In the interest of word limit I am going to concentrate on the more contemporary understanding of convenient packaging, and perhaps take a historical look at the subject in my next entry on the topic.

Here are a few examples of some of the packaging that I have found and have liked. Some of the packaging ideas are beautiful because of their refined, restrained use of material, others because they trigger memories or celebrate the process of unwrapping. Who doesn’t enjoy unwrapping – whether it’s because it’s a socially acceptable expression of destruction, or because it’s a ritualistic, contemplative moment in your everyday.

Click here to read about reSparkle a great example of environmentally friendly packaging. 

Packaging can appeal to us so much that we can use it to sell things that we would never want otherwise, for instance garbage!

Click here to read of our article on Justin Gignac, a New York City based artist who sells rubbish to illustrate the power of packaging.

Packaging is certainly a worthwhile fascination. There is always room to improve and create more efficient, environmentally friendly and thought provoking packaging for any product or purpose. If you need some packaging designed, and would like to see what’s possible, give us a call, we’re always up for the challenge.

Julia Dowe
Design Creative