Had a visit this morning from the brilliant Progress Packaging guys – Simon and Liam – they are experts in bespoke packaging and well worth speaking to when spec’ing a job. Their blog is one to bookmark, a nice insight into the company. Awesome tote bags …]]>

Had a visit this morning from the brilliant Progress Packaging guys – Simon and Liam – they are experts in bespoke packaging and well worth speaking to when spec’ing a job. Their blog is one to bookmark, a nice insight into the company. Awesome tote bags too – thanks guys!

Excellent body of work from Willem Stratmann.

Lovely Lizzy from Sparks has been in touch to let us know about this piece, a new box set of three album releases for the artist Duke Special.

It coincided with his recent performance in the Brecht play Mother Courage at the National Theatre in …]]>

Lovely Lizzy from Sparks has been in touch to let us know about this piece, a new box set of three album releases for the artist Duke Special.

It coincided with his recent performance in the Brecht play Mother Courage at the National Theatre in London. The album artwork was screen printed on grey board held with traditional book binding tape. The slipcase was silver foiled on a textured card. The product is simple and economic to produce but provides an evocative uncompromising result. The box set is now on its third production run bringing the total to just over 25,000 units, which continues to confirm our suspicion that well conceived design continues to make physical albums desirable to music lovers everywhere.

Everything Design, another testament to the thriving Australasian design scene which has quietly developed over the last few years. Lovely simple site, and big images of nice work. Only thing missing is a bit of project info, for those who’d like to know a little more about the …]]>

Everything Design, another testament to the thriving Australasian design scene which has quietly developed over the last few years. Lovely simple site, and big images of nice work. Only thing missing is a bit of project info, for those who’d like to know a little more about the work.

I was surprised and delighted to receive one of the much in demand GP is 10 mailers designed by Build for printers Generation Press. A limited edition of 500 (I got No.69), the mailer comes in a bespoke grey board packaging printed one side with the new Colourplan …]]>

I was surprised and delighted to receive one of the much in demand GP is 10 mailers designed by Build for printers Generation Press. A limited edition of 500 (I got No.69), the mailer comes in a bespoke grey board packaging printed one side with the new Colourplan Barry green (A new colour of GF Smith Colourplan green was created by GP’s own colour mixologist Barrie Forrest.) It houses an embossed and overprinted custom box containing 10 lovely loose pieces by the likes of Build, Sanna Annukka, Timothy Saccenti, Nicola Place and John O’Reilly. Each insert is printed on various stock with a variety of lovely finishes including a lovely matt black foiled X onto Mirri card and an A3 3 spot colour design printed litho on to white Astralux. I have done a bit of a geeky ‘unboxing’ style set of images, not the best photography Im afraid but it should give you the idea. This is a lovely piece which I will be referring to a lot when it comes to beautiful attention to detail and superior print and finishing. Thanks to Generation Press for making my day.

Praquin is a Paris-based agency with a portfolio which is limited in quantity, but broad in spectrum, with projects covering literature, packaging and product design.

Boxed and Labelled takes a fresh look at packaging design, illustrating how it has developed it’s own graphic language in today’s over crowded shelves. A solid body of work, showing off some of the best examples of contemporary packaging design. Documenting various aspects from physical packaging solutions through …]]>

Boxed and Labelled takes a fresh look at packaging design, illustrating how it has developed it’s own graphic language in today’s over crowded shelves. A solid body of work, showing off some of the best examples of contemporary packaging design. Documenting various aspects from physical packaging solutions through to label design.

With a plethora of poorly designed predecessors, chock-full of uninteresting packaging examples, I was apprehensive that this would be the case until seeing the sharp inviting cover of Boxed and Labelled. I’m pleased to say this is anything but dull, presenting outstanding examples of packaging nothing like the over designed examples included in some other publications. Instead, the book has a much more sophisticated, personal approach that speaks to customers in an intelligent way.

The book opens with a tone-setting essay discussing the history of packaging, the need to compete on the shelf and talk to the customer, leading on to discuss the ‘green’ issues that packaging designers must consider. Boxed and Labelled then neatly groups packaging examples into seven sections. As you dig deeper into the content every example is presented with such finesse, you get a real feeling for the packaging taking on a life of it’s own and aspiring to the qualities embodied by the product inside. It is easy to see that some of the examples are design classics in their own right, an object you would want to collect.

Captivated by the quality of the content, it is interesting to see the mixture of approaches to packaging design. From illustration to photography to purely typographic treatments, each solution captures its own narrative that draws you into meticulously studying the packaging and inevitably creating that want for the product it contains. Some of the examples take this a step further to create their very own persona, as beautifully demonstrated by Sarah Dery’s carrier bag design. Common throughout the work is the designers use of wit and intelligence, which seems to be a running trend in contemporary packaging design. The content has been compiled from sources worldwide using industry professionals and prototyped designs from students which was great to see.

Credit has to be given to Hans Baltzer and Floyd Schulze for the design and layout. A clean and minimal design reflects the considered approach given to the work on show. The images are of a good size, the curation of the work is sufficient and details of the designers and clients are a welcome addition. Printed on a thick coated stock allows the often vibrant packaging to be reproduced in all its glory. Occasionally full bleed images of an entire product range help to break up the pace of the book and come as a nice surprise. Finally the cover image by Hattomonkey for Molokoshka’s milk product range, hints at the caliber of the content.

Boxed and Labelled demonstrates the panache and aspirational qualities that have made contemporary packaging design desirable and iconic in its own right—take the Dorset Cereals as perfect example. Encompassing a wide range of packaging design aspects the book is a pleasure to read presenting packaging in an inviting and engaging way. Even if this subject isn’t your choice of tipple, Boxed and Labelled is bound to bring a smile to your face and realise a new appreciation for outstanding packaging design.

Boxed and Labelled is available from Amazon and all good local book stores now.

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Words: Gil Cocker

Photography: Malcolm Menzies

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Really admire the unassuming level of sophistication which runs through the portfolio of packaging specialists Designers Journey.

One of my all-time favorite studios, Frost*, have updated their site with some lovely new works.

Thanks to Quan Payne at Frost* for the update!

(We also had a chat with Vince Frost about a future interview which he promptly agreed to! More details soon.)