----- Handmade Firsts -----

So i just learned that this years (tonight) Oscar's will mark the first time they handmade each winner announcement envelope; why only start now? For an event that prestigious should require every detail to be attentive right down to that envelope. Created by 184-year old fine papermakers, GMUND Paper, based in Gmund am Tegernsee in the Bavarian Alps.

----- Packaging Dreamland -----

I feel disappointed to only have heard about the culinary heaven William Sonoma at the end of this year. They recently opened in my town; at first when I saw the construction announcement, i couldn't resist and said, "another cookware store?!". Oh how i regretted it once I stepped foot in the store, which then followed by long hours wasted on their website. Boy, it is not affordable; cookies for over $20; salsa for $16. The American stores serve and cater food; carry precooked food as well. I am overall most impressed with their in-house products; the packagings are to die for. Shelves and shelves of gorgeous visual design porn. Their in-house team is an impressive bunch, if not the team they hired; as well as the packaging from other brands they sell.

Williams Sonoma

----- Warning: Not Edible -----

The holiday season is great time to spot best packaging designs. Every store and brand brings out their best works. My favorites aren't about the ribbons and wrapping; it's the intricate designs to fit the most complicated, shaped product.

I bought this from the The Body Shop as a gift; it contains five of their signature Born Lippy lip balms in five fruity flavours, which when you put your nose close to it, you can really smell the aroma but remember, don't take a bite.

In digression:

I hate Christmas shopping. I like the idea of family gatherings during the holiday, the spirit of it, but I just hate the materialistic part, the commercialization of Christmas. The need to buy more useless things, plus, don't get me started about wrapping paper, unless it's a "Chinese Christmas gift exchange (google it, seriously, don't get me started with that either); it's such a waste of paper resources, i rather just tell the person to close their eyes, place the gift in their hands, then tell them to open their eyes; it's equally a surprise. Sometimes you just have to roll your eyes, pull out your credit card and purchase something for the person because they deserve it and need it.

Curiosity lead me to read Grammy's list of Best Recording Package, also would be known as best album cover design. I looked at half the list from today to the 1970s. Some were really nice, but most were questionable. These are my favs:

The Black Keys (2011; won)
Michael Carney, art director

David Byrne & Brian Eno (2010; won)
Stefan Sagmeister, art director

Oh No Ono (2011, nominated)
Malene Mathiasson, Malthe Fischer, Kristoffer Rom,
Nis Svoldgård & Aske Zidore, art directors

Neko Case (2010; nominated)
Kathleen Judge

Bright Eyes (2008; won)
Zachary Nipper

Chicago X (1977; won)
John Berg

----- A Skinny Drink for Skinny People -----

One of things that make designers cringe or dispel is when they are asked to design an idea to help a company falsely sell and promote some unethical belief, like for example, packaging design for cigarettes or diet pill advertisements for youths. Would one know when they've crossed the line? Does one have the right to reject a project due to personal beliefs? Anyway, the reason I brought this up is because Diet Pepsi is repackaged in a Skinny Can. It's called this way due to its shape and six inches in height. The company quotes "celebration of beautiful, confident women." My ass. Is beautiful and confident. Not some aluminum can that has been lengthened and trimmed to reflect society's perfect ideological thinking of what skinny women should look. Another marketing gimmick to add to the wasted spaces of Earth. Just like the way Zero is marketed to men so they can drink comfortably without having the embarrassment of drinking feminine Diet drinks. What a way to enforce more body confidence Pepsi.

Source

Hm, is that really what I think it is? Right? Kind of unusual, confusing concept. There must be a double meaning. I like the chosen colours; they're very delicate and light like the white wine its selling, but all i notice is the egg and sperm. Wine and sperm. (Speaking of which, I read sperm is an ingredient of a certain anti-aging cream). You think it is a way to draw a subtle connection to the green grapes harvested during which wine making is like conception? Leave it to the wine experts.

Dame Vita

----- Too Cute to be Recycled -----

Packaging dominates most of our visual pollution. Behind every packaging design, there is a team of designers (or a single designer) who works on constructing a physical exterior to hold a product in place while delivering a consumer experience to attract and sell. Packaging isn't just a piece of cardboard, container, plastic, or label. Clothes are to humans what packaging is to products. A person's fashion style can exhibit a certain personality and taste—a product's identity and purpose are first informed by its outer layer. Winter seasons force coats, hats and scarves as a form of protection against rigid weathers—the products' fragility during transportation are protected by the selected material. The thought process can't be arbitrary, many factors must be included and planned to flawlessly deliver the product from the manufacturer to the store then safely to the hands of the consumer.

Packaging of the World is perfect for offering visitors a great collection of packaging from around the world. For the inspired and uninspired.
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Packaging of the World
www.packagingoftheworld.com

Doing a little research for packaging for my side project. Found these unique concepts. By Paolo Ulian.

Another prime example of well restraint execution for products that don't necessary need to be over complicated and gaudy. Being the opposite definitely makes these cans stand out from the crowd. This style is right on my street. Cabinets don't have to be boring...

http://www.turnerduckworth.com/

Case in point:

See how the yellow boxes in the centre are the prominent ones? Bold colour, minimal images, and text, simply-simple, not busy.

----- smaller the package the better -----

When I stroll between the aisles of my grocery stores, often times I get hit with an urge to try new products, my curiosity arises and I end up spending a lot more time, and money, than I intended. One of my pet peeves are bad packaging. Nothing is worse than picking up a product, pondering over and over, meanwhile while your priceless time goes by, and all you wanted to know is, for example, how long it takes to cook, or even just to know what it is. When I'm in hurry there's no time to play a game of I Spy, the grocery edition. I prefer skipping all the marketing junk message, and just give me the real deal. LESS IS MORE; as much as the quote has been used but I cannot reiterate more.

London firm, Pearlfisher, created a packaging design for chef Jaime Oliver's food line. Is down right simple, easy to read and importantly, to the point!

It's a wine bottle, a sparkling wine bottle, a ice wine bottle? 0% alcohol? What non-sense is this? Oh... wait a minute.

Received this gift from the company's business trip. I think I was the single soul who was overly excited about the clever design and the clean, sleek form. And I'm sorry if I've been living in an igloo to not know about the existence of Deco Umbrella. Check their website: http://www.bottleumbrella.com/

Here's something I've always kept in my archive. A prime example of how graphic design meets problem-solving meets life-changing solution. In an unfortunate incident, designer Deborah Adler's grandmother mistook her grandfather's pills due to the lack of proper labeling and unorganized textual composition of typical pill bottles. The accident turned into a happy one as this lead Adler to pursue a research and development project on pill bottles, and eventually brought by Target.