Thinking about the box.

August 12, 2009 12:41 PM

Package design: more compelling than you think.From medicine to matches to spices to cookies to vitamins to paper bottles, this blog highlights interesting packaging. (And because it features their products far better than the non-profit store websites do, check out the fun wares from LA's Time Travel Mart, San Francisco's Pirate Supply Store, Brooklyn's Superhero Supply Store, and Ann Arbor's Robot Repair and Supply, previously discussed here on Metafilter.)
posted by CunningLinguist (29 comments total)

Huh! They had a page on Greenwood Space Travel Supply (in Seattle), too but it seems to be gone now. Google Cache.
posted by gurple at 12:49 PM on August 12

oh my god, that superhero supply store is where I'm halloween shopping.
posted by shmegegge at 12:52 PM on August 12

Yeah, I couldn't figure that out. The space travel stuff didn't seem as clever as some of the others.
(check out these awesome Time Travel posters.)
posted by CunningLinguist at 12:53 PM on August 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

I'm all in favor of packaging being interesting if it's minimalist and functional, but stuff like this is disgusting. Using 30 times more paper than you need to isn't good design, it's just pointlessly evil.
posted by gurple at 12:55 PM on August 12

Package design for packaging your package.

Nice post.
posted by Kabanos at 12:59 PM on August 12

"Such tragedy could have been easily avoided" - hahahahah!
posted by CunningLinguist at 1:01 PM on August 12

Using 30 times more paper than you need to isn't good design, it's just pointlessly evil.

woah there gurple! some might say macaroons themselves aren't necessary, doesn't make them evil though.
posted by doobiedoo at 1:02 PM on August 12

Don't get me wrong, I love me some macaroons! But this is the proper way to package them.
posted by gurple at 1:04 PM on August 12

If the industrial design folks at my old university don't know about this, they should. There were display cases, showing off what the most recent class of young product designers had come up with for innovative packaging. Most of it was repurposing existing items for new uses. Single-serving cereal in a plastic bowl? Viola! Single-serving dog food in a bowl!
posted by filthy light thief at 1:09 PM on August 12

I live near the Superhero Supply Store. I absolutely love that place. It would have been awesome to have gone there when I was a little kid.
posted by defenestration at 1:10 PM on August 12

Using 30 times more paper than you need to isn't good design

Yeah, but the site isn't about minimalist, functional, ecofriendly design. It's about things in pretty packages. I'm afraid I cannot stamp your outrage passport.
posted by 23skidoo at 1:28 PM on August 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

Using 30 times more paper than you need to isn't good design, it's just pointlessly evil.

Guh? It's a box. With a sheet of paper. And some dividers.
posted by smackfu at 1:34 PM on August 12

CunningLinguist, those posters are gorgeous. I want to use them to wrap up my evil macaroons and give them to unsuspecting superheroes.
posted by Diagonalize at 2:17 PM on August 12

....in the year 3745
posted by CunningLinguist at 2:19 PM on August 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

If you like The Die Line you may also like the Lovely Package blog.
posted by Western Infidels at 2:29 PM on August 12

I was just going to suggest Lovely Package too.
posted by princelyfox at 2:45 PM on August 12

I'm enjoying this so much, thanks!

Is there an equal-opportunity, Evil Geniuses Supply shop? Because my kids would get a big kick out of that.
posted by misha at 4:53 PM on August 12

I would totally buy Effen Vodka just so I could say "It's time for some effen vodka, yo."
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:00 PM on August 12

Yay pretty things!
posted by The Devil Tesla at 5:01 PM on August 12

Is there an equal-opportunity, Evil Geniuses Supply shop? Because my kids would get a big kick out of that.

No, but to prevent grand-kids, there are (as previously - and more surreptitiously - linked), evil genius condoms.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:02 PM on August 12

Prevent grand-kids? Shit, that's the whole point of having kids in the first place, isn't it?

Nice post by the way. Some of the Superhero Store reminded me of generic packaging.
posted by exogenous at 5:21 PM on August 12

Is there an equal-opportunity, Evil Geniuses Supply shop?

Well, the Superhero Store sells lairs, and mind control, large bottles of chaos and yes, robot sharks, so you could do alright as long as you pretend to be a Good Guy while shopping.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:12 PM on August 12

lol...the jungle hygene kit reminds me of that scene from AbFab where Edina takes a shower...after grabbing an armload of beauty products, a container of oatmeal, a sponge, a brush, a loofah, and a large bundle of tree branches from out of a vase.

yeah, everything here is about 100% unnecessary...why do we continue to buy this overproduced bullshit? it's wasteful and it's killing the earth.
/killjoy
posted by sexyrobot at 9:17 PM on August 12

yeah, everything here is about 100% unnecessary...why do we continue to buy this overproduced bullshit?

Because we need something...anything to distract us from the fact that we're going to die one day, and that day is coming faster than we think, and we really won't have enough time to understand what it was all about before...

Oh look! shiny! want!

What were we talking about?
posted by billyfleetwood at 9:44 PM on August 12

My friend Dave and his wife have created a spice storage system that utilizes the space filling properties of the triangular prism to maximize storage density.
posted by Tube at 10:57 PM on August 12

I wish I could change my mefi handle to "turtlestunner".
posted by greenland at 11:59 PM on August 12

Some of the Superhero Store reminded me of generic packaging.

That actually was intentional -- the designers wanted it to look like the store is sort of like the superhero's version of Home Depot or Tru-Value, complete with its own "in-house brands".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:40 PM on August 13

Hi, my name is Deborah and I'm a total package design geek. If there's something I need/want to purchase, I'll buy the "pretty" packaging even if it costs a bit more.
posted by deborah at 3:40 PM on August 13

lovely package, previously :P

cheers!
posted by kliuless at 5:15 PM on August 18