Having recently broached the subject of Martha Stewart, it’s only fair that we now honor the packaging work. Here are three interesting examples:
1. Cake-shaped cake mix boxes —or rather, slice-of-cake-shaped cake mix boxes. More meaningful than the celebrated “Perfect Slice of Summer” Kleenex boxes since, in this case, the shape actually signals something about its contents. Makes an appealing display and hopefully no one is so literal-minded as to imagine that the box contains a slice of cake!
On a more polyhedral note, there appear to be seven (rather than six) slice-shaped boxes on the cake dish above. Leading one to speculate whether this box’s angles are based on a heptagon rather than a hexagon. There are spaces between the boxes above, however, suggesting that arranged in a circle, they are not really meant to close-pack. It may be that the angles are more intuitive—or maybe these spaces are an open invitation to go ahead and pick one up. Still, as triangular prisms, they would certainly close-pack if alternated on a shelf. (See also: Trapezoidal Boxes)
2. The carton for this wine glass set has photos wrapping around each corner creating opportunities for larger, extended displays. Designed by Doyle Partners. (See also: The Incomplete Package: Part of a Larger Whole)
3. Nested mixing bowls carton by Brian Chojnowski (while at Doyle Partners). We like nested stuff and these are particularly nice illustrations. Also we like when packaging does this kind of orthographic projection thing—diagrammatically showing you what’s inside the box as if each side were a window. (another example: this Russian phone box)
Come to think of it, that’s something we should probably explore in some future post: orthographic graphic design.
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design
Please note the cake boxes were conceived and designed by the Martha Stewart In-house design team namely Lara Harris, Melanie Wiesenthal and Soyoung Oh.