box vox

Super PAC Packaging

As we enjoy a new, hyperbolic political season, generously funded by large amounts of Super Political Action Committee money, I thought it might be a good time to take a look at some earlier types of Super Pac.

Not surprisingly, the name was previously associated with packaging.

SuperPac, Inc., whose logo appears at top, offers “A Tradition of Excellence in Flexographic Printing.”

SuperPAC™ (logo: above center) is a trademark of Thomasville Furniture:

Thomasville’s promise to provide our customers with the best overall kitchen, bath, and other room solutions initiated our development of SuperPAC, our patent pending packaging technique.

And SuperPac is also the name of a British company that makes a car stereo accessory. (Logo by Frankman Design)

Superpac is the new way to hold your detachable car stereo front. Designed to replace the dull black plastic case supplied with most car stereos, the Superpac offers you a stylish way to protect your cherished face-off style car stereo.

Mastey de Paris carries a SuperPac “Intensive Reconstructor Conditioner for Stressed, Damaged Hair” (above, right)

Superpac reconstructs damaged hair, rebuilding and reinforcing the hair’s protein chains. Superpac enables hair to retain its elasticity and structural integrity with newfound bounce and resilience.

Mastey de Paris

There was also a Timberland Super Pac boot. (via: Gwar Izm)

Nowadays, a candidate whose political campaign benefits from Super PAC money is not supposed to “coordinate directly” with his or her Super PAC benefactor. In practice, however, a candidate’s Super PAC is often run by a close ally—a Super PAC man.  (e.g., Jon Stewart is Steven Colbert’s “Super PAC man”)

Not to be confused with an earlier “Super Pac-Man.”

Top & center: Commodore 64 “Super Pac-Man” packaging from Moby Games; bottom photo: a General Mills Pac-Man cereal with “Super Pac-Man Marshmallows” from Jason Liebig’s flickr Photostream

Now, if we were willing to be more liberal about the spelling of the term—accepting say “PAK” as a reasonable variant (as in Political Action Kommittee?)—then there’s even more to think about.

(More, after the fold...)

Mine Enemy’s Candy

Mussolini, Hitler & Hirohito candy boxes, each with an open die-cut mouth (via: Hakes)

I don’t know what it is about candy and war. We’ve had a couple of other posts touching on it... the German Chocolate Hand Grenade... the Candy Bomber...

These candy boxes above, from WWII, feature Axis leaders with die cut mouths, ostensibly a game for children to throw balls into—(the French text on the boxes offers encouragements like “Hitler’s Speech Is Finished” and “A Sharp Movement, It Should Shut Him Up.”)—but I wonder if children didn’t also dispense candy from those mouths.

Which brings us to the War on Terror and Osama bin Laden. While bin Laden has certainly been featured in a number of insulting products here in the United States, children’s candy does not seem to be among them.

Which is not to say that our recently deceased enemy combatant has never appeared on a box of kid’s candy. Consider: Super Osama bin Laden Kulfa Balls.

Photo from: Fullsteam’s Flickr Photostream

Not anti bin Laden candy since it was most popular in Afghanistan and Pakistan and uses that brush script adjective “Super” on the packaging.

In the war on terrorism, this was clearly the enemy’s candy—not meant for consumption in the United States, although, for some reason, available in China.

Manufactured in Pakistan, this product apparently dates back to 2002:

Many vestiges of the Taliban era remain untouched in the beat-up, dusty center of Kandahar, where the ruins of buildings that collapsed during the recent American bombing campaign lie among the ruins of older battles. Venders with carts sell “Super Osama bin Laden Kulfa Balls”—coconut candy manufactured in Pakistan and packaged in pink-and-purple boxes covered with images of bin Laden surrounded by tanks, cruise missiles, and jet fighters.

After the Revolution, by Jon Lee Anderson
The New Yorker, January 28, 2002

Aside from Super Osama bin Laden Kulfa Balls, I know of one other bin Laden candy: Peta’s “Bin Laden Bites” vegan chocolate bars, released in April of last year.

(Photos of Bin Laden Bites packaging, after the fold...)

Impossible Bottles

The puzzle-like interlocking bottles of the previous post leads me to the topic of “impossible bottles”—those bottles containing things that should not have been able to fit though their necks.

A ship in a bottle is the most familiar example, but enthusiasts have come up with plenty of other stuff—(even packaged stuff like cigarette packs and decks of playing cards)—to put into their “impossible” bottles.

(One more thing, after the fold...)

Cigarette Pack Charms

Two Eppy miniature Tareyton cigarette packs via The Mule Wagon Antiques & Collectibles

Among the charms made to resemble tiny packages, cigarettes figure prominently. Some of these were kid’s vending machine charms, of the type we featured last Friday...

9 cigarette pack charms from Eureka Gumball Charm Nirvana

Not the sort of toys today’s parents would encourage their children to play with, but no surprise that toys like these would be around in the late 1950s and early 60s. (In those days, candy cigarette packs and the like were considered culturally acceptable products for children playing grown up.)

Other, earlier cigarette pack charms seem to have been intended for an older demographic...

Charm bracelet and charms via: WorthPoint.com

“American teenagers in the 1950s and early 1960s collected charms to record the events in their lives.”

Wikipedia entry on “Charm Bracelets”

If such charms were intended to commemorate significant teenage events, one has to wonder, “What milestones were being commemorated here?” Learning to smoke? Changing brands? 

(More examples, after the fold...)

Edge-Matching Puzzles

Following our recent puzzle/packaging thread, I learned about these promotional edge-matching puzzles on Rob’s Puzzle Page. (Photo on the right is from Rob’s page; photos above and below are from eBay)

Quite a few companies put out advertising-puzzle premiums based on Edwin Lajette Thurston’s 1892 patented puzzle. (Sometimes they’re called “Mystery Puzzles.”)

I like that the puzzle’s geometry requires the product packaging to be shown at every orientation—sideways, right-side-up, upside-down. I like the harlequin motif and the four-color mapping.

Pictorially, I think these would make such cool paintings—anachronistically bridging the gap between pop and op. They could be modular like the puzzle, itself, and hung up in different arrangements. (Even when they’re assembled incorrectly they still look great.)

(Thurston’s Patent and a Vess bottle cap “Mystery Puzzle,” after the fold...)

Back in the Boxes

Packaging for two products, each called “Back in the Box”

1. Back in the Box™ by Classic Games Company was a packing puzzle in which 17 tetrahedra of various sizes are fit back into a cube-shaped box.

Despite rectangular box inside, the shape of the package is more exotic. Appears to be rectangular box with one corner truncated to make a triangular top flap. A rare example of polyhedral puzzle packaging reflecting its unusually shaped contents, the truncated corner simulates the shape of the tetrahedrons inside. (Photos, on right and above, left are from Baxter Web Puzzles)

2. “Back in the Box” the 1994 seven-song "David Byrne" CD: design and photography by Deborah Norcross.

I like the blurry photo of the little box, and of course I want to know, what did it once contain that we are now meant to imagine going back in the box?

Note: track one is parenthetically entitled, “Vox in the Box mix” 

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

Naef Packaging

Yesterday’s exploration of nested packaging leads us inevitably back to subject of nesting toys and to German mathematician, Peer Clahsen’s “Cella.” (Designed for Naef in 1979) Again, these are like Matryoshka dolls—only more modern and geometric. As with the early Rubik’s cubes, the products are fascinating, but it’s also interesting to check out the graphic design of the original packaging.

I like the multicolored Naef logo with the stacked “a” and “e”—which seems related to Naef’s building block products, but in in a subtle way.

Naef’s version of a Rubik’s Cube

(Some videos of “Cella” & another Naef nesting toy, plus more vintage packaging, after the fold...)

Wooden Toy Packaging

Toy blocks of wood, painted to look like packaging.

Usually, when one thinks of wooden toys, one thinks of wooden train sets or wooden cars—the idealized “authentic” toys of an innocent childhood—devoid of plastic or commercial branding. The gravatational force of commerce is strong, however, and not even “authentic” wooden toys can resist its pull. (Not that play shopping toys are such a new thing.)

All of the toy packages here are no-name, look-alike brands... except for the Bandaids, and Bandaids—as any child knows—is a brandnomer, anyway.

I like the economy of the set above: bottle, jar, juice carton, milk jug, toothpaste tube—all painted on rectangular planks of wood. With some of the other sets below, there appears to have been a bit more woodwork.

(More wooden toy packages, after the fold...)

Package as Pixel: 8-bit Soda Displays

Following the thread of yesterday’s post about packaging as part of a larger display, led me to some widely circulated photos of a supermarket display in which the video game character known as Mario, was made by stacking cases containing different brands of soda.

Chris Jordan’s 2007 “Can Seurat” eloquently demonstrated that packages can be used to create pointillistic images. Still, the idea that such large packages can be reduced to such a small supporting role—that of a single pixel of color—is sort of surprising.

The video game reference is apropos, perhaps, since it’s our familiarity with low-resolution, 8-bit graphics that have prepared us to easily interpret these crude mosaics.

Is there also some subliminal association between pixels and tiny carbonated bubbles—8-bit carbonation? (The connection between soda pop and 8-bit video games has been more fully explored by Justin Kirkwood at Not a Real Thing.)

Unlike the packages we looked at yesterday, these displays were not anticipated by the package designers. These seem to be more of a grassroots merchandising effort on the part of local grocery stores and their employees—(although the Marios in the video and in the photo above appear to be two different versions, but following the same basic pixel map...) The subjects covered by these types of displays, however, go beyond video games, running the gamut of sporting events and holidays.

(Many more photos, after the fold...)

Combination Toy Gun Holster and Package

A. F. Langos’s 1952 patent for a “Combination Toy Gun Holster and Package”: An early example of environmentally-friendly, “green” package design. Rather than package a toy gun and its holster in a disposable cardboard carton, the cardboard carton is the holster.

I’m no gun nut... but for more about pistols & packaging, see the bullet points below:

• Gun-Shaped Bottles
• Bleach Bottle Gun Silencer
• Target Packaging
• Single Action Army Revolver Retail Box.

(A couple more cardboard holster packs, after the fold...)

4 Patented Crayon Cartons

1958 patent drawings for the famous “Crayon Carton and Sharpener”:  invented by Henry C. Beebe, John W. Neff & Wilber L. Clymer, assignors to Binney & Smith, Inc.—(i.e. Crayola)

(3 earlier crayon box concepts that did not catch on, after the fold...)

Trapezoidal Toy Container

”A construction toy comprises a plurality of rods and flexible linking rings. A variety of structural or decorative three-dimensional constructions can be made by interlocking a multiplicity of rods with the flexible linking rings. The rods can be joined at an infinite number of angles with respect to each other. The toy can be stored and carried in a trapezoidal package in which a multiplicity of linking rings form a part of the handle.”

Eric P. P. Chan’s Construction Toy and Container

Another trapezoidal container—one in which the package was deemed to be part-and-parcel of the patentable intellectual property. (Unlike the Bratz trapezoidal cardboard box)

Clearly its trapezoidal shape is to accommodate the “plurality of rods” in graduated sizes.

“Fig.2” especially appeals to me and here’s why.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

Miniature MRE boxes

Similar to dollhouse packaging, but with more of a GI Joe aspect: miniature MRE and WWII rations boxes.

What’s the story behind these these tiny (1/35 scale) boxes?

Whether a full-scale mock-up of an objective or a small sand table, the terrain model is an invaluable tool for the combat leader to visualize fully the battlefield. All combat S2s should be proficient in the process of creating functional models in a variety of circumstances and conditions...

The “nuts” and “bolts” of the terrain project is the terrain model kit. The kit is a simple box containing the basic tools that you will need to construct any terrain model... It might contain laminated cardboard cut-outs of meal, ready-to-eat (MRE) box pieces.

The Terrain Model: A Miniature Battlefield
by Captain John T. Chenery
Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin

Some DIY, some from kits—photos via: USArmyModels.com

(An MRE kit sheet, after the fold...)

Typecube™ — 3 more types

I’m done with the Rubik’s Cube thread for now. Honest. The thing is, it led me to some related loose ends—loose ends that I now feel compelled to tie up...

One of last week’s typographically-hacked Rubik’s cubes was Scott Kellum’s “TypeCube”—(inset, on right). Search online for that brand name, however, and you will find at least three other “Typecubes.” Not a huge trademark infringement case, since these are small DIY graphic-designer projects. Still—all but one of the designers has seriously considered selling their Typecubes and, for potential products, there may be some confusing similarity.

1. At top is Manuel Kiem’s 2007 Typecube. Not a Rubik’s cube exactly, but a twistable, modular font-stamping device, similar to Jas Bhachu’s more recent “Font Generator” which we also featured last week. Kiem offers a free font based on his Typecube device. (Scott Kellum also offers a free font based on his Typecube device.)

2. Center photo shows Regina Rebele’s 2008 Type-Cube. Her project is made of paper and is definitely not a Rubik’s Cube. (Although it does appear to be a “Magic Folding Cube”) Also: even though her Type-Cube is nicely packaged, hers is the one that does not seem to be for sale as a product.

3. Lower photo shows Chris Clarke’s 2008 Typecube. Her project consists of a cube-shaped box containing 64 small wooden blocks, which can be used to form modular letters or patterns. A more recent version of this idea may be seen on another graphic designer’s web site: jori-design’s “One Hundred Cubes One Alphabet” — modular typography via small, cube-shaped blocks.

I am not trying to cause any trouble or stir up litigation here. I’m just saying... if a typographically-inclined loved-one wants a “TypeCube” next Christmas—you just need to be sure you know: “which type?”

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

In Six Moves

Another Rubik’s Cube related package¹. On Tuesday we featured Invader’s “Rubikcubist” recreations of famous album covers. Yesterday we looked at the original Hungarian package for Rubik’s Cube. Today we’re looking at a more recent vinyl record release, “In Six Moves” by the Almería-based band, Moon Unit. (No relation to Frank Zappa’a daughter, I don’t think—and not to be confused with the Gasgow-based, Moon Unit.²) The cover with Rubik’s Cube graphics is by Almería-based design studio, Globulart Diseño:

The title of the LP came during a conversation with David Bailey, singer and lead guitar of the band; the idea was to use the famous Rubik’s Cube to take advantage of some coincidences:

The LP contains six songs / the cube has 6 sides.
The world record in solving the Rubik’s Cube is six moves / again, the concept of the six songs.

Except for the CMYK color palette, the cover illustration is remarkably similar to the illustration featured on the original Politechnika Rubik’s Cube packaging which is maybe appropriate considering both products were manufactured and packaged in Eastern Bloc countries. (“In Six Moves” was pressed and printed at a factory in the Czech Republic.)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

(Four footnoted digressions, after the fold...)

Politechnika Packaging

Photo of the original “Büvös Kocka” packaging via: Baxterweb Puzzle Auctions 

When Erno Rubick’s famous puzzle first came out in 1977—before Ideal Toy Corporation got involved—it was called “Büvös Kocka” (Magic Cube) and was manufactured only in Communist-Bloc Hungary by Politechnika Ipari Szövetkezet. (aka: Politoys)

The puzzle was first packaged in this interesting folding carton—(with integral hang hole flap).

(More folding cartons, after the fold)

Packaging via: Rubikcubism

 Some package-related artworks by Invader—the French “street artist” best known for installing unauthorized tile mosaics of 8-bit¹ video game graphics in public places.

The album cover mosaics, above, and Campbell’s Soup can², on right, are actually assemblages of Rubik’s cubes. (See: Rubikcubism)

Like Space Invaders, the Rubik’s Cube is an 80s game made from colored squares.  It’s a fascinating object, as it’s both extremely simple and extremely complex. Did you know there are over 43 billion possible permutations for a Rubik’s Cube? I use the Rubik's Cube like an artist uses paint. I like the idea that it wasn’t intended to be used this way, and that ultimately it works really well.

Invader

For me, the bitmapped album covers, easiest to decipher, are those that I’m familiar with—that I actually owned and listened to. (Above: Abbey Road, The Velvet Underground & Nico, Country Life, and Nevermind) They simultaneously hark back to the obsolete, orphaned medium of vinyl records, while more closely resembling a low-res iTunes thumbnail.

But it’s not all conceptual post-digital pointillism. This work also flaunts an impressive mastery of Rubik’s cube moves as shown in the video below. (Please note: the opening shot...)

(Another photo & footnoted digressions, after the fold....)

3 Kinds of Cereal Box Puzzle

1. Variety Pack Puzzles
Some packaging puzzles of the jigsaw type.

“Each set of variety puzzles contain four packets of different cereal themed jigsaw puzzles, and each comes with its own extra puzzle on the reverse. Each pack of cereal puzzles contains a 100 piece jigsaw of a bowl of cereal...”

From SpinningHat.com

photo from: The Meehans ‘with a Silent H’ blog

2. DIY Cereal Box Puzzles
Cereal boxes have for decades featured occasional games and puzzles on the back, but the idea of using the fronts for DIY puzzles appears to have been gaining traction recently.

“The fronts of cereal boxes are often bright and colorful. Follow these directions to make them into fun puzzles! Cut the front from a cereal box. Recycle the rest... use a pencil to divide the back into different shaped sections like puzzle pieces... Use scissors to cut on the pencil lines.”

from “3 Things To Do With a Cereal Box” by Carol Ann Bloom
(via: The Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation)

(3rd type of cereal box puzzle, after the fold...)

Playstation Clothing

PS Clothing: brand development and package design by GR/DD. Surprisingly subtle and retrained packaging for video game clothing. (In contrast to, say, X-box)

(Another photo, after the fold...)

Kinder Joy’s Dual-Chambered Egg Pack

Photo from SmALl CloUd ...'s Flickr Photostream

Kinder Joy brings several favorite box vox themes together in one package.

1. First off, it’s another egg-pack, fitting nicely into our entirely egg-shaped week—(that, technically, should have begun with the Silly Putty/L’eggs post from last week)—and although Kinder Joy may be sold at Easter, the company, by no means, confines their marketing efforts to that time of year.

2. It’s another thermoformed, single-serve, peel-off pack in a metaphorical shape. Similar to the bottle & jar-shaped packets and the half-orange-shaped packs from earlier this month. In fact, Kinder Joy’s dual structure—one half for the edible treat; one half for the prize—is exactly like that of Alberto Ghirardello’s Salvo concept (where two halves of an orange break apart to form two separate containers).

3. Kinder Joy (like Kinder Surprise) is a “surprise package” and includes the classic, question-mark styling, typical of that tradition.

Photo on right (revealing prize) is from P.J.S.'s Flickr Photostream

(Case-packs & TV commercials , after the fold...)