Dutch Packaging Design

Already back in 2007, Anke Weiss, a Dutch modern designer who uses recycled materials, has designed a series of beautiful lights made from recycled food and drink packaging. Weiss takes – for instance – juice cartons that have been emptied of their contents and pokes holes in them, through which light will shine after the piece is completed. Recycling to the max that is.
More on this project and Anke Weiss’ work here, here and here.

A compilation of yearly design awards, this book features the best in communication and packaging design from around the world. The iF communication design awards have been conferred since 2004 by a panel of design experts from across the world. Showcased in this volume are the most outstanding examples of communication and packaging design. This yearbook presents trendsetting achievement in advertising, media, campaigns, packaging, and websites.

Read more here, or buy here.

In a world of tremendous fast growing digitalization, packaging design can’t stay far behind. Want to ‘feel’ a package and see it’s benefits without having the actual package in hands? Apps and other digital media provides us, in combination with regular printed media, an innovative and even better way of advertising.
Stepfive Communication & Design designed and developed a mobile and desktop website for Dutch candy producer Look-O-Look, to be reached by a QR-code at advertisements. Consumers and sales managers can digitally feel and navigate around the new package design at this site. In combination with printed and social media it gives Look-O-Look a wide spread and an effective campaign to show their brand and products.

Stepfive creates new distinctive retail and catering concepts for food and beverage brands on a daily basis. We develop new concepts, recipes, brands and packaging design together with our clients. We also revitalise existing products on our own initiative, because we are convinced many products could have a more successful brand appearance with the right adaption and repositioning. For example, we have created this new concept for Bloody Mary.

This Bloody Mary concept can be used for the catering and retail sector. The bottle has two facings (meant for standing and hanging) and can therefore be placed on a shelf, perhaps in a retail environment, or can be suspended within catering establishments. You also have the option of attaching a connecting piece with a hose, allowing drinking glasses to be filled with Bloody Mary from a bottle hanging on the bar.

Packing design evolves. An edible bottle made from organic materials that is biodegradable too? No problem. Dr. David Edwards (professor at Harvard) is working on the WikiCells project that looks into creating edible packaging. WikiCell membranes can hold the drink together and can also be consumed afterwards. These membranes could be made out of something tasty, like chocolate or candy.
There are some hurdles to be taken though. Hygiene for instance. Products in ready-made packaging go through many hands – literally – before they reach the end consumer, and despite the companies’ assurances of their products’ safety, it is unlikely that consumers would be willing to nibble on something whose hygiene can so clearly be compromised. Still, marketing and recycling experts agree that there is room for experimentation.
Wish to try some of Edwards’ experimental edible packaging? You can sample them at the stunningly beautiful Lab Store Paris.

The event for everyone who admits that packaging is ”more than just a box around a product”. If you’re responsible for your company’s goods, such as SRP, shelf standout, the development of new designs or a product’s life span, then PACKAGING INNOVATIONS 2012 is your number one must-see exhibition of the year.
Wednesday 28 / thursday 29 november 2012, Passenger Terminal, Amsterdam

Again a wonderfull asset for our bookshelf, “packed” with inspiration: THE ART OF PACKAGE DESIGN. A recent assembly of international designers is creating highly outstanding and savvy designs to complement the nature and function of a product. Editor Wendy Xu included the Atelier LaDurance Japanese Denim packaging in the publication that is about innovative packaging designs that functions beyond ‘simply product wrappers’. A creative treasure published by Gingko Press: www.gingkopress.com

For Coldenhove Paper,  Stepfive designed the company’s Stand including the give-away mug, all for the FESPA Digital 2011 in Hamburg. This paper manufactorer develops innovative paper like Digital dye sublimation paper, which is particularly interesting for designers in the field of product-, interior- and packaging design. The mug shows how the sublimation really gets into the material! Its not just a print on a mug, but a print in the actual glaze! Almost every item and material can easily be sublimed with designs you like. It’s solid, sharp and scratch-proof.

Digital dye sublimation is probably the most spectacular innovation of the last decades in the digital graphics industry. This leading-edge application represents the adaptation of advanced digital printing to the conventional process of dye sublimation transfer. By developing a range of transfer papers that offers the highest transfer yield, the best printabillity and runnability, in close co-operation with (amongst others) customers and leading equipment and media manufacturers.

see also: www.coldenhove.com

Students from Design Skolen Kolding, Denmark, made videos for the UNICEF Innovation – Reuse of Packaging Challenge – over a period of three weeks in January 2011. They are all works in progress. More videos at their YouTube UNICEF Innovation Channel.

At this years CES 2011, Fulton Innovation makes the power of wireless energy visible. The video above shows light up wireless animated cereal boxes powered by inductive coupling technology. The idea is to have wireless power available in everything, from tabletops to grocery aisles to parking garages.
A pretty cool innovation and an excellent way to push packaging design to the max.