Packaging and Branding

I don't remember how old I was when I saw this ad for the first time, but I have been an admirer of Benetton's ads for a long time. This company has always promoted diversity through its ads and with the color palettes of its textiles it makes available to consumers. The ads themselves can be studied as innovative social design.

Light My Fire is a camping equipment company that I just ran into one day while I was shopping at Wal-mart. Not only does this ultra cool line of sporks (also has a serrated edge like a knife) come in a neat concise package, it is made with PP friendly plastic, and has other matching accessories in its line that look pretty cool too.

Just the design of the box of Godiva chocolates is a thing of beauty. Recognizable from a distance, and the chocolate inside the box is desirable as well.

I really respond to the different colors on display in the clear glass bottles of Jones Sodas, and the variety of colors and flavors of these juices and sodas. I really love the blue one (Raspberry lemonade?) Yum.

A Hershey Kiss. Small. Concise. To the point. Delightful.

Marimekko is a Finnish textile company that sells fabrics and textiles as well as coordinating home accessories. I love this store, and I love the way they have their colors speak, and the store itself is the the blank white palette with which it contrasts.

Neutrogena is a company whose line of hygiene products have been effectively marketed using a plain package with a limited color palette, and a distinctive orange-yellow color of soap as their product.

The Rubik's Cube isn't a company with lots of good designs, but a single high note as a product that can be universally agreed upon as good design. This piece pretty much markets itself because the design is universal.

Tiffany and Co., a chain of jewelry stores, uses the same blue box for packaging its jewelry. In fact, it has successfully copyrighted this shade of blue in shade of blue in some parts of the U.S. As an upscale jewelry store, this method of branding is similar to that of the Godiva company: the packaging itself reflects good taste, no matter what is inside.

Toblerone is a Swiss chocolate company that has a really cool triangle shape as its packaging concept. The distinctive large red font with the picture of the mountain on the box contrasts with the buttery yellow background and the shape of the pieces themselves reflect the picture of the Swiss Alps on the box.