New Rule: If you’re going to redesign your highest denomination, then hire a designer! This is an abomination which appears to have been driven by no aesthetic principles. Just a bunch of engineers who tried to cram everything into our nation’s most valued denomination.
We love it when people think outside of the box, literally! The Sportlifestyle company Puma has been working together with the branding firm Fuseproject to create a whole new take on the shoebox. Their final product turned out not to be a new box at all, but a “clever little bag”. This redesign uses 65% less cardboard than a regular shoebox and the recyclable bag will replace standard retail bags. We hope that other companies get inspired by this eco-friendly attitude. Great initiative and great design, Puma!
Our friends over at IvanExpert just sent us some great information for NYers wanting to recycle their old electronics. Just in time for spring cleaning.
Why is this so important? According to WiseGeek:
“…computers and cell phones actually contain toxins that can leach out into the soil and damage the environment. The problem is further compounded by the fact that many of the elements used in the construction of consumer electronics are quite valuable, leading companies to attempt to recover them from abandoned electronics, and discard unwanted parts in a manner which is unsafe.”
Click below to find out the many convenient locations you can safely dispose of the digital detritus that’s taking up needless space…
These days, it seems people have gotten really creative with their beer drinking. The Go Plate, much like The Ashhole, (which MSLK designed the packaging for) can transform your empty beer bottle, can or cup into an instant commodity.
While The Ashhole fits on top of empty bottles and converts them into an ashtray, The Go Plate fits around your beverage receptacle of choice and as a result, allows you to carry your food and drink in one hand. It’s pretty clever and pretty practical; however, I don’t suppose it will help get rid of any beer bellies any time soon.
-Mariana G.
As Reactions continues to evolve, we are pleased to announce the addition of guest bloggers to our blog. This post features Mariana Gorn, our trend-spotting, beer-swilling, intern.
In a previous post I mentioned a great lecture I went to at the HBA on sustainable package design. The speaker, Jane Bickerstaffe, the director of INCPEN, directed me to a fabulous guide that INCPEN created for designers and manufacturers on the 360-degree considerations one should make in developing a sustainable product and packaging.
Although the guide is a lengthy 64 pages, I found it to be incredibly informative on how to consider your packaging from the sourcing of the materials, to the energy involved in transport/production, to the effects the packaging has on the distribution, and the waste caused by under-packaged and over-packaged goods. It also delves into the trade-offs of design for end re-use vs. recycling vs. compostablity.
On a recent trip to Whole Foods, something caught our eye that was so incredibly simple, so obvious, that it made us wonder why it hasn’t always been this way: A biodegradable flowerpot.
Instead of buying flowers in the standard plastic pot which you inevitably dispose of after transplanting the plant into your garden, this eco-friendly, unbelievably easy solution literally embodies the concept of sustainable design, the pot returns to soil itself. No mess, no fuss. Just dig a hole, and set it in. Even the tag is biodegradable making doing good practically effortless.
If you want to keep these on your stoop, that’s fine, too. In most cases, the pot will outlast the flowers. Once you’re done, simply put whole thing into your compost bin.
Why isn’t everything designed this way?
Recently at the HBA Expo, I attended a lecture by Jane Bickerstaffe, the director of INCPEN, the Industry Council for Packaging & the Environment. When discussing innovation in sustainable packaging, one can usually expect to hear the same topics covered, reduction of the packaging weight/thickness, use of recycled or bio materials, reduction of overall packaging components. However, Jane wanted to point out something entirely new. The carbon footprint of the packaging of a product is really just one tiny spec in the overall life cycle and eco-footprint of the product it contains. In short, packaging protects far more resources than it expends by proportion. So if you reduced the thickness of your packaging and the product inside became damaged as a result, the amount you sought to save would be wasted by 10 or 20 fold.
The other week Sheri and I found ourselves at one of our favorite places, the Vermont Country Store located in Southern Vermont. It’s an immense, yet quaint store with an amazing assortment of goods.
Known as the “Purveyors of the Practical & Hard-to-Find,” the VCS regularly attracts crowds from as far away Boston and New York. (I’m talking about chartered coaches full with tourists!)
For us, the appeal of the “hard-to-find” outweighed that of the “practical” and we were like kids in a candy store. It even has a candy store, which was of great interest to Sheri. But that’s a whole other story.
The universal appeal is that it evokes a simpler time, as is evidenced by an amazing assortment of great, classic packaging. We were pleased to find that they included one of our own, designed for Wigwam…
The other day I bought what I thought was the same-old, same-old Ritz crackers. Wrong! Obviously a wayward design elf at Nabisco took it upon themselves to have a little fun.
You’re looking at the back… the front is still a bit schlocky, yet the fact that this minimal design passed through the ranks without being compromised is actually quite amazing.
Ok, alcohol is certainly not a new party accessory. It’s been the accessory of choice for quite some time now. But apparently Nicolas Feuillatte champagne wants to take the sloppy out of drunk. They’ve issued fashionable individual champagne bottles that can be worn on the wrist, like a clutch. These quarter bottles, called One Fo(u)r Fun, come in a brut (pictured) and rosé (in pink). I picked one up at last week’s MoMA corporate party (thanks Corinna!). I’m not so sure how I feel about them. They’re kind of cute and festive, but I can’t say I’d ever purchase one for myself. Accept a free one at party, though? Totally different story.