If you read this blog by way of email subscription or RSS feed, you may have wondered why box vox suddenly stopped posting this past week. The fact is, I’ve had my hands full trying to migrate this blog from TypePad to a WordPress site hosted on our own BeachPackagingDesign site. There were actually three posts made since the switch, but it only dawned on me yesterday that feed subscribers were being orphaned by the move. Now that I’ve updated the RSS feed, I’m hoping everyone who opted in will continue receiving our ultra-significant package design missives.

Feed Bags: 3 kinds

1. Feed bags for horses (sold for $88.13 at Cowan Auctions)

2. Bag packaging for animal feed (for sale for $14 from shepshaberdashery’s Etsy Store)

3. Candy “feeding bags” from a vintage ad in a 1911 issue of International Confectioner, sold for only 1¢ each (via: The Candy Professor)

We’ve shown similar toys with trompe l’oeil name brand packages printed on them —(toy shopping carts, miniature dollhouse packages, etc.)— but I recently got a glimpse inside a Wolverine brand toy fridge.

Originally, toys like the pink refrigerator on the right (with “a full larder reproduced on door insides”) retailed for only $2.98, but as a collectible the price is now higher. (Wolverine advertising photo via: The People History)

I’ve lost track of some of these photo sources, but 2nd row, left: from Live Auctioneers; on right: from MarkandBlyth’s Flickr Photostream; 3rd row, left: from The T-Cozy; on right: from RainbowMermaid’s Flickr Photostream; 4th row, left from Schaufensterbabe; on right: from eBay Auction ($19) bottom row, right: pink fridge from TwirlswithPearls’ Etsy Store

With the doors of the refrigerators permanently stocked with food packaging, we wondered what sort of packaging the toys, themselves came in.

(Asked and answered after the fold…)

From an eBay auction ($34.95) we learned that these toys came in a house-shaped box. (Although, architecturally, this package looks more like a lean-to shed or an outhouse.)

–Randy Ludacer

Jonna Perdersen (whose sculptures we looked at yesterday) entitled the painting above “This Is a Pipe.” Making clever use of a brand of licorice pipes that I was not aware of —“Skippers Pipes”—and making reference to that popular paradox of representational art: The Treachery of Images by René Magritte. In Magritte’s painting a pipe appears above a caption that declares in French, “This is not a pipe”…

The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it’s just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture “This is a pipe,” I’d have been lying!

In Pedersen’s painting, Magritte’s paradox is given an additional twist, since the product portrayed is, itself, a faux pipe. [Full disclosure: when I was in art school, I combined a 6 inch lenngth of galvanized heating pipe with an elbow joint (forming a pipe-like shape) and gave it the old “Ceci n’est pas une pipe inscription.]

Originally trademarked in 1966 by Chicago based Leaf Brands, Inc., the product has recently come under fire as a simulated tobacco candy product.(like candy cigarettes) and appears to be somewhat discontinued. That is to say, I can find no mention of it on Leaf’s web site.

Matching Skippers Pipes wrapper photo from mulch.thief’s Flickr Photostream

Upper left: photo from Christiane Torden; on right: counter top display box from Fine Little Day; lower photo from After The Denim

Note how the lower box has additional faux features. This is not a wooden gift box tied up with red string.

(My own non-pipe work, after the fold…)

–Randy Ludacer

Last August we featured some of Jonna Pedersen’s paintings of Danish packaging.

Her contribution to the upcoming, Global Village 2012 show in Alkmaar, Holland, includes two over-sized package sculptures: a Maggi Bouillon box (above) and the margarine package on right.

(“My Margarine” ©2012 Jonna Pedersen, Mixed media on card board, 104 x 82 x 41 cm)

–Randy Ludacer

Back in 2009, I wrote a post about Canada Dry’s mysterious Astronaut Water that, in the 1960s, came in a space capsule shaped plastic bottle. Clearly, the product was connected to the Gemini space program, but I couldn’t understand how plain, bottled water could have been promoted in those days as a kids’ beverage—even if it was the same stuff the astronauts drank in outer space.

Recently I was contacted by John MacLean, now head of Target Flavors, who, in the 1960s had worked at Canada Dry Laboratories and was uniquely qualified to clear things up for me.

Maclean, shown in a 1965 press clipping above (holding, what I believe is, a Gemini “8” Astronaut Water bottle like the one on the left) explained to me that, despite its commerical packaging, Astronaut Water was never meant to be retail product. A small number of these bottles were distributed to the press as part of a promotional campaign to publicize Canada Dry’s important contribution to the space program.

John S. MacLean of Danbury, Conn., analytical chemist who drew up specifications for the water, holds a sample bottle of the triple distilled liquid. Not for sale to the public, Astronaut Water undergoes a thorough inspection at Greenwich Canada Dry Laboratories before it is used in space flights for drinking, reconstituting dehydrated foods and purging space capsule systems.

An unidentified Connecticut Newspaper, 1965

In contrast to today’s packaged water, which is generally promoted for its natural purity, Astronaut Water was publicized as a space-age engineering feat. Triple distilled in a platinum block… So pure that it doesn’t conduct electricity… (More of the water’s technical specs appeared in the 1966 “Press Reference Book” for Gemini Spacecraft Number Eleven, prepared by the External Relations Division, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, on right)

The Gemini “8” bottle was an ordinary glass beverage-bottle, but for the Gemini “9” version, they really pulled out the stops, opting for the plastic, space capsule shaped bottle. Although MacLean could not confirm this, it seems likely that the matching space-capsule-shaped-bottle-shaped savings bank (below) was part of the same publicity campaign.

Once it had been made clear to me that it was journalists (and not children) who were the intended demographic for bottled Astronaut Water, I wondered if there were any articles to be found online about it…

(Astronaut Water meets the Press, after the fold…)

Space-Age Water

Jonathan Eberhart, Science Service writer, recently reported the following item: The latest Spage Age beverage is called Astronaut Water, but unfortunately only astronauts can get any. The “purest water in or out of this world” was provided for Gemini 8 Astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott by Canada Dry Corporation, better known for ginger ale than for space feats. But this is no soda pop. Astronaut Water exceeds the standards of both the US Public Health Service (PHS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) for amounts of dissolved solids, as well as for several more technical details such as turbidity and bacteria count.

For example, samples of Astronaut Water were evaporated and the remaining residues weighed to measure the solid content. The result: less than five solid parts per million parts of water. The PHS allows 500 parts per million, while WHO is even less strict with 1500.

Astronaut Water is not available from your friendly grocer, unfortunately. But even if you could get some, you would not want to pay Canada Dry’s price. In full 16-ounce bottles, even at the Government’s bulk rate, it would cost you several dollars a bottle. No wonder the space race is so costly!

Industrial Water Engineering, 1966

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The real secret of Gemini 8’s spin may have been revealed in an advertising story in the columns of the New York Times a week or so before blastoff, when the story of Canada Dry Corp.’s contract to supply water for the flight was told. In a press release date-lined Cape Kennedy, the company announced that it had been designated “exclusive supplier” of the water to be used during the walk around the world and pointed out that what it supplied was the “purest water in or out of this world.” Not to short-change its regular customers, Canada Dry pointed out that this water is basically the same as the water supplied in all Canada Dry products. And that’s where we got our clue. We use Canada Dry water all the time. Why? Because it keeps its bubbles longer than any water we have ever tried. So? Hic-ups in space are irresistible. Next time, if they’re smart, Gemini 8’ers will call for down-to-earth public water supply water, aerated!

American Water Works Association – 1966

Interesting discrepancy about the money: Industrial Water Engineering cites a government “bulk rate” supposedly paid for the water, but MacLean’s Connecticut newspaper clipping (below) reported that the water was provided to NASA “free for the duration of the Gemini Project.”

Many thanks to John MacLean for the news tip!

(See also Packaged Water and Zero-Gravity Coke Packaging)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

Left: Harry Allen’s “Cocktail Table.”; Right: Nathan Tobiason’s “Wine Table.”

Above: Gregor Stoltz’s collaborative PET recycling project table.

Above: Don Wine’s “Port Wine Table.”

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

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…)

Top left: a “Super-Pak” apples label from WashingtonApples’ Flickr Photostream; on right: a box of “Super-Pak” dietary suppliment from Beverly International; lower left: a jar of “Male Super Pack” from Douglas Laboratories; on right: The Mercury Cougar XR7 Super Pak

Printer’s proof of a vintage Hot Wheels “Hot Strip Track Super Pak” carton by Mattel, illustration by Otto Kuhni (via: RedLineProntos); the thoroughly example of the same box, sold on eBay for $5.00

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

Based on an 1895 poem by Gelett Burgess, a “purple cow” generally meant something “out of the ordinary” or something you don’t see every day. As depicted in these vintage packages, each with its whimsical cow illustration, the concept was fine.

I’m not so accepting of the new over-arching definition of “purple cow” as something remarkably innovative, as set forth in Seth Godin’s book, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. Because of this book, some people are now calling any ground-breaking, category disrupting product a “purple cow.”

For some reason, I find this new meaning a loathsome thing. To me, the name “purple cow” diminishes the hard work of innovation, making it sound like something merely capricous.

I doubt Steve Jobs would ever have given one of Apple’s products as insipid a name as “purple cow” and yet all over the place there are people now saying that the iPad and the iPhone are “purple cows.”

You need look no further than the scapbooking craft company The Purple Cows to understand the uncool connotations that this name carries.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

I hadn’t realized it was named after a leading brand of nitrous oxide. Or that “NOS” stands for “Nitrous Oxide Systems.”

Considering all the attention paid to the negative influence of energy drink brands with names like “Cocaine” and “Hemp,” I was surprised not to have known about a “Nitrous Oxide” energy drink.

NOS even put out a version of their bottle, designed to resemble a Nitrous Oxide Systems tank, but it’s more about caffeinated racing cars, than huffing inhalants, apparently.

NOS 22oz PET was awarded BevNET’s Best of 2007 for Packaging Innovation…

“The authentic package design of NOS 22oz PET was inspired by the actual nitrous oxide canister, developed by Holley Performance Products, which prompted the design and use of ‘valve’ over caps,” said Bill Meissner, Chief Marketing Officer at FUZE Beverages.

The packaging is instantly recognizable and the association with Holley’s Nitrous Oxide canisters has been well received by customers, vaulting NOS to No. 7 in the energy drink category.

Packaging Europe

With such similar looking packages in different product categories, is there any danger of consumer confusion, a la Skinny & Sweet?

(More confusion, after the fold…)

Adding to the NOS consumer confusion, there are also two kinds of NOS bottle opener.

One is an ad promotional for NOS energy drink. (Photos above from above from DrinkNOS blog.)  Note how it’s designed to fit over the faux valve. Note, too, how the award winning PET bottle has a twist off cap and does not really require a bottle opener.

The NOS “Nitrous Remote Bottle Opener” on right, is actually an automotive remote control valve for a Nitrous Oxide Systems tank. (That right, another remote control bottle opener.)

“Mental confusion is a Nitrous Oxide side effect that is almost never mentioned, yet it happens with more frequency than many would like to admit.”

Side-Effects-Site.com

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

These four examples explored below…

1. The Clicker: a universal remote control with an integrated bottle opener feature, invented by David Dignam. ($24.99 with free shipping)

As with any good idea, the Clicker was inspired by hanging out with friends and drinking a few beers… in Wisconsin. David Dignam, the inventor of the Clicker, was traveling back home to New York from a long Thanksgiving weekend hanging with the guys in a small town in western Wisconsin (hometown to one of the guys). The idea hit him, “why not combine a universal remote control and bottle opener, and have one less thing to have to look for in your own home”. Thus, the Clicker was born, the ideal union of two of the most important items in the home: the remote control and bottle opener (for some people)

2. Magnetic Remote Control Shaped Bottle Opener: a sort of “fridge magnet” bottle opener that happens to be shaped like a TV remote. Does not appear to actually change channels. Buttons include “OK” and “Hello.” ($1.49)

“This bottle opener is designed with like real remote control appearance and it is quite absorbing. You may think it is a remote control when they take a glance. But it is a bottle opener in fact.”

3. The “2006 World Cup Party Edition” of the Philips Universal Remote Control. (Not sure if this is still available, but at one time it cost $12.50)

“With this special edition remote control you’ll be more than ready for the 2006 World Cup. It even comes with a bottle opener, scorecard and extra battery, so you won’t miss a moment of the action.”

4. The Pop Pops Remote Control Bottle Opener by Russ: a faux remote control, but a real bottle opener, packaged in a bottle-shaped blister pack. ($6.99)

“This cleverly designed remote control themed bottle opener is what you need to get the drinks and the conversation flowing! Hand painted, along with very detailed accents and a metal opener add style and functionality to this classic item.”

(See also: bottle-shaped bottle openers)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

CPG as RCU. Delsym’s current advertising campaign imagines their product packaging as a television remote control for muting distracting family cough symptoms. (Detail of a print ad by Roy Tuck, on left)

(The print ad in its entirety, after the fold…)

(See also: controller-shaped underwear and condom packaging and “Life Controlling Machines”)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

Similar to the idea that the “roly poly” tobacco tins could be used to store brownies, this package was meant to be reused as a lunch box:

“…this box is primarily intended, although not restricted, for use as an original package in which tobacco is sold, the box, after the contents originally placed therein have been used, having been found very serviceable as an extension lunch box or kit”

(More of Tuttle’s patent drawings, after the fold…)

(See also: Nested Packaging, Bread Loaf Lunch Box, and Packaging and Tobacciana)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

In last month’s post about roly poly Santa and clown containers, there was one photo of a Santa-shaped tobacco tin. “Tindeco” was the company that originally came out with this type of anthropomorphic package design:

Around 1912 the Tin Decorating Company, aka Tindeco, produced round colorful tins to hold tobacco for the American Tobacco Company. American Tobacco controlled Tindeco, as well as the four brands of tobacco sold in these tins. Each container held about 1 lb of tobacco with the brand names Dixie Queen, Mayo, Red Indian and U.S. Marine. Apparently the company suggested that the tins be used as brownie containers after the tobacco was used and designed them accordingly.

The six original tins were Satisfied Customer (reproduction called Businessman), Storekeeper, Singing Waiter (reproduction called Singer), Mammy, Dutchman (reproduction called Cowboy), and Scotland Yard. According to "The Tin Can Book", the Satisfied Customer, Dutchman and Scotland Yard are the hardest to find. But for those collectors that want complete sets, six tins would not do it! A complete set would be eighteen tins. Mayo and Dixie Queen tobacco was packaged in all six designs and while Red Indian and U.S. Marine were only packaged in three different tins. One way these tins were identified was by little packages of tobacco shown on some of the packages. E.g., Mammy had a tiny tin in her front pocket.

Barbara Crews, Roly Poly Tobacco Tins, 2002

Not exactly the Droste-effect, but when anthropomorphic packages are shown handling packages that contain the same product that they, themselves, contain, the effect is similar. Even when these characters are not shown with packaging in their pockets, they all have tobacco packages behind their backs. (back packs)

On left: a close up of cross-promotional behind-the-back package illustration; on left a vintage Mayo’s Tobacco pack of the type depicted

Below the “Scotland Yard” character with “Dixie Queen” tobacco behind his back. (Lower right corner shows the vintage tobacco pack depicted.)

The “Singing Waiter” character also promoted “Dixie Queen” in an alternate package.

On left: drawing from Washington I. Tuttle’s package design patent; on right: Charles Weise’s patented “shopkeeper” design (both patents assigned to American Tobacco Company)

(The “Mammy” character and the roly poly tobacco tin design patents after the fold…)

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Above is Washington I. Tuttle’s package design patent. There were a number of additional patents covering the artwork, mostly by Mortimer V. Tessier…

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And just to show how the tops of these containers work, here is a reproduction of the “Dutchman” character (aka: “Cowboy”)  for sale on Etsy ($15). Made by Bristol Ware, a division of Chein Industries.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

Many bottles are described as “hourglass shaped” but only a few actually pertain to the archaic time-keeping method.

On left: an hourglass-shaped Absinth bottle; on right: Inez Kochanowicz’s “Water Hour-Glass”

And a few designers have also proposed making hourglasses from discarded bottles…

On left: Danny Seo’s hourglasses made from Method bottles; on right: Recycline’s soda bottle hourglass

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

This past Summer I picked up a self-published booklet entitled “Tumpline and Paddle — Five Weeks in Quebec” at a church-run thrift shop in southern NJ.

Written and printed in 1970 by John Rotch (at The Cabinet Press, Milford, N.H.) it documents a “wilderness canoe trip” and was apparently published as part of a school assignment.

Initially, I bought the booklet because I liked these photographs of the author using a vintage Cutty Sark Whisky carton to demonstrate the proper use of the “tumpline.”

One of the most important pieces of equipment on our trip was the tumpline…

Webster’s New International Dictionary says that “tumpline” is “of Algonquin; origin; Massachuset tempan, a pack strap, Abenaki madumbi. A kind of sling formed by a strap slung over the forehead or chest and used by one carrying a pack on his back…”

John Rotch, Tumpline and Paddle

But aside from worldly product placement of a name-brand Scotch whisky box serving as proxy for the traditional wooden “wanigan” — there’s also something poetically fitting about Rotch’s carefully roped rigging around a box that features Cutty Sark’s full-rigged sailing ship logo.

(Rotch demonstrates the tumpline in use, after the fold…)

(Note how the tumpline’s burden is primarily borne by the head.)

I had a really great trip with a great bunch of guys. The trip meant living away from civilization in the Canadian wilderness. We had to depend upon one another so that the trip could be what it was. All of the thing of the trip, like sitting around a campfire, swatting black flies, shooting rapids, paddling in the rain, seeing northern lights, portaging on the rough trails, getting up at 6:30 a.m., walloping pots… all those things are what made it an unforgettable trip. The trip was one of the most meaningful events of my life.

John Rotch, Tumpline and Paddle

The print run of this publication must have been fairly small. There’s very little mention of it online, although I did figure out that its young author became Pastor John M. Rotch.

Now pastor at a church in his New Hampshire hometown, one of his sermons compares people to deceptive packaging…

You know, when you buy a microwave dinner you’re paying more for the packaging than you are for the actual food that’s on the inside… How many of you have ever had this package and it looks really nice and by the time you open up the package…  whatever the product was inside was this little thing and you go, “Is that it? That’s all there is on the inside?”

Form vs Substance, “Pastor John Rotch looks at Matthew 7 and the importance of our substance over the outer package that we present to the world.”

(See also: Entenmann’s Box as Metaphor)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

Lest anyone imagine that camouflage patterns were confined only to beverage packaging, here are some recent examples of camouflage package design, in general.

Because of its star logo, Amour Star seems ready-made for a patriotic camouflage treatment, although it’s debatable how American a “Vienna Sausage” can ever be. (Designed by Bob Oliva)

Jiffy Pop, too, has undergone camouflage treatment. (Via: Lester Of Puppets’s Flickr Photostream)

“Powderflage” powder concealer comes in a camouflage canister. (Note how its camo pattern is made of butterflies.)

Srixon’s camouflaged USO golf balls pack, we’ve mentioned before.

Yoder’s canned bacon comes in a camouflage patterned can.

“A Bathing Ape” (aka: BAPE) has for a while featured camouflage patterns in its branding.

And Huggie’s diapers have also supported our troops through camouflage patterning.

Also: camouflage candy…

and camouflage peanuts, for some reason.

(and one more example, after the fold…)

Important to remember that camouflage is a painting technique. Although the can of Krylon spray paint on left does not actually spray out paint in a camo pattern, it is one of the colors they sell, for creating camouflage.

On right: Paas “Camo” Egg Decorating Kit. (Makes an outdoor Easter egg hunt more challenging, I guess.)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

Originally developed as a functional pattern (as opposed to a decorative pattern) camouflage might seem an odd choice for product packaging since the pattern is meant to conceal.

Usually product packages are designed to attract attention so it’s striking when a package is designed to disappear into the background. Of course, the environment of store shelves is quite different from outdoor environments. So what blends into the background in the desert sands might actually be quite conspicuous at the grocery store. And vice versa.

Probably the point of using camo in this context has more to do with masculine connotations of hunting and military service than in concealment.

Miller Brewing had this to says about it’s limited edition camouflage packaging:

“Miller High Life is again honoring its century-old connection with the outdoors by introducing limited-edition, camouflaged packaging and cans of Miller High Life and Miller High Life Light.”

Photo, above right, from Wishful Slacker

2009 Vault Citrus camouflage can from ebid; photo on right from Eating in Translation

It should also be noted that there are products available for camouflaging beer cans…

(One more thing about camouflage beverage branding…)

Liu Bolin’s preparation for his “Hiding in the City No. 93 — Supermarket No. 2” photograph (below) shows that the patterns needed to effectively blend into the background of a store shelf environment are a different kind of camouflage.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design