TEXTURE

Indigo dyed fabric duplexed onto card / gold embossed business cards from Small Trade Co.

WRAPPED

Artist monograph designed by M/M (Paris) for Koo Jeong-A. I like how it's fully wrapped with a photograph of forest -- something hidden and exposed all at once. Even the name wraps it up.

HIGHLIGHTS

⌘I

Inverted values: Le Labo for Anthropologie Concrete Perfume packaging. I wonder if the concept of antique "measuring weights" was decided on before or after this was actually designed. Emphasizing the weight instead of the logo already speaks to an apothecary aesthetic -- was that alone not conceptual enough? Brings up interesting questions of concept and execution, I think. Also, probably wouldn't work without Grasse -- New York, even if they are an anti-brand. Altogether pretty packaging reminds me of other fave perfume solid -- In Fiore.

SMALL TIME

Love this product packaging found at Old Faithful Shop. Top: D.S. & Durga; bottom: Bonnie's Jams. When I checked out Bonnie's site, I found this great quote on her blog: "Like most people in business, I think about branding. So I was struck by Osama’s cave and hills branding strategy. In fact he lived in a villa with all the usual comforts." Tying into this, earlier this morning I happened to read an article from last year about Andy Spade: "'The bigger you get, the smaller you act.' [ie] The more personal a brand, the more stuff it can sell." Great news, but frankly I think I prefer the idea of business growing while keeping true to themselves rather than becoming big and then 'down branding'. Bonne Maman is a great example of this, have they ever changed their packaging? I don't think so.

SOMETHING

CASUAL

COMPANY

I like these two projects from London-based Company.

HMMM...

Found on the Pilot Magazine blog (see also: Crisp), an interesting set of experiments from Turkish design studio Antrepo.

ILFORD

Found this image on ManyStuff, in a post about an exhibition of works by the Design Research Unit at the International Project Space in Birmingham. What interests me is how current the packaging looks. Either the mid-century trend is totally maxed out, or the Ilford packaging from 1946 is a classic. My vote is for classic.
Recently in a discussion with designer Christian Küsters, he brought up the point that design doesn't always have to be classic -- that one should be able to look at something and know exactly what era it's from. That idea definitely takes the pressure off of trying to make design 'timeless' all the time. Because really, is something actually timeless, or is it just so neutral that it never goes out of style?

BOXES

Recently I had the pleasure of building two clamshell boxes for a project. The first clamshell boxes I made were probably 10 years ago with Dr. Elsi Vassdal Ellis, who teaches book arts at WWU. They're sort of a pain to make, requiring a lot of steps and waiting while the glue dries, but deeply satisfying once finished. 

THEME AND VARIATION

A battalion of zebra and mint make up Claridge's rebrand, brought to you by Construct here in London. Love the theme and variation stripes. Found on CR blog.