In today’s market, brands and designers have to find increasingly innovative ways of staying ahead of the competition and making us buy their product. One great way to out do your competitors is through packaging. Generally we’re all used to the generic packaging designs, and tend to oversee them day-to-day. However when we see something fresh, cool, or creative we automatically get drawn in, like a moth to the light!
Enjoy!
Blood Energy Potion
This gory energy drink is another example of a company completely breaking with tradition. The packaging looks eerily similar to a bag of blood, and even contains a disclaimer – “Not for use intravenously or in transfusions”.
Butter Better
These single-serving packs of butter also have unusual lid designs. Rather than transforming into a spoon, the lid can be used as a knife for spreading the butter.
Parmesan Cheese Pencil
The Deli Garage are known for their creativity, and they certainly delivered with this product. These edible cheese pencils are crafted from parmesan, and come complete with a sharpener. Each pencil has a flavoured core – chilli, pesto, or truffle – running down the centre.
Coconut
Hard, durable and distinctive, the coconut is nature’s own packaging. One company in the Dominican Republic has harnessed this concept, using the shell as packaging for their brand of coconut water.
Thelma's Cookies
This cute box from US-based bakery Thelma’s adds the wow-factor to their products. Consumers don’t often need persuading to buy cookies, but this packaging will have them reaching for their wallets faster than you can say “chocolate chip”.
Fitbuns
These protein-enriched bread rolls garnered far more interest than they might have done, thanks to this playful design. In the world of packaging design, the simple ideas are often the best.
Flowers
Gloji
Glogi won awards for this unusual design. The light-bulb bottle contains a healthy blend of pomegranate and goji, and, according to the packaging, is “The Juice That Makes You Glow”.
Gogol
Some packaging serves a double purpose. The Gogol Mogol contains chemical layers which, when activated by pulling the tab, create just enough heat to make the perfect boiled egg.
Dino Gum
Novelty packaging often proves popular with consumers. These designs can either give a twist to a traditional concept, or – like these dinosaur-head gum packets – create a completely new form of packaging.
Headphones
These Noté headphones make a simple point with their design. Turning their purpose into their selling point.
H&M
A great packaging design for a giftbox. Not very secretive though, but clever nonetheless.
Juice
These juice cartons look good enough to eat. Created by designer Naoto Fukusawa, the cartons are crafted from the skins of the fruit they contain.
Kitchen
Lasagne Cookbook
The recipe becomes the meal with this edible cookbook. Made by a German design agency, the pages are constructed from sheets of fresh pasta, which are then filled with the ingredients to make lasagna.
Lunch Bags
Most food packaging is designed to look as attractive and inviting as possible. These quirky lunch bags take a completely different approach, making the food inside appear moldy.
Meat
These packages of meat might not look exciting, but they’re making use of a technology that’s set to revolutionise the packaging industry. The coloured strip of film changes colour depending on the amount of oxygen present – and indicates whether the food inside is still safe to eat.
Milk
Nike
Paint Brushes
Pasta
Pasta La Vista have taken a light-hearted approach to their packaging design. The cartoon faces and pasta-hair are brightly colored and distinctive, and immediately draw the eye to the box.
Popcorn
Designer AnniNykänen took inspiration from the art of origami when designing this popcorn packaging. The box expands as the popcorn is cooked, turning into an angular serving bowl once the kernels have popped.
Quick Kiwi
Shirt Tea
These tiny hangers are an unusual and quirky way of packaging teabags. However, they’re not just for show – the hangers hook onto the side of the mug, making it simple to remove the bag once your tea has brewed.
Smirnoff
Fukusawa is not alone in using fruit skins to package his products. Smirnoff created this unusual design to advertise their range of flavored vodkas.
NYC Spaghetti
Spark
Spoon Lidz
These are the perfect solution for on-the-go snacking. The lids of these yoghurt pots, made from a robust material, fold into the shape of a spoon once removed from the pot.
Green Berry Tea
Anni is not the only designer to make use of Japanese origami. These Green Berry Teabags, designed by Nathalia Ponomareva, slowly and gracefully expand when placed in hot water, to reveal the shape of an intricately folded bird.
TeaPee
Tequila
These unusual bottles are moulded into the shape of classic guns. Filled with Mexican Hijos de Villa tequila, they deliver an entirely different kind of shot.
By Janet Duane
