Packaging Design - Chocolate

Tina Alster's private label for Après Peau

Who doesn't love chocolate? Everyone who says they don't is lying to themselves, in my oh-so-humble opinion. Therefore, it is ideal when the covering for this incredible sweet confection perfection is just as wonderful. Here are some great packaging for the chocolaty goodness that we all love (or should).

The Brooklyn Brothers is a design company with loads of personality. They have a distaste for the general style of advertising, and created a design for a chocolate that has no ego, and loads of chutzpah. I love the graphic snout on the top of the chocolate squares, so plainly snouty in spite of its simplicity. The name "Fat Pig" is also hilarious, which makes it even more awesome.

TCHO has an extremely simple design for their chocolates. It looks incredibly natural and biodegradable, with an effective minimal design.

Miller Creative uses delicate lines and feminine grace in this redesign for NYC's Lush Toffee. I like the color palette chosen and the tabs on top. The L is especially beautiful with its flowery embellishment.

Meg Gleason is a student who came up with an innovative design for her chocolates. The strawberry shapes are adorable little containers for the sweet treat, while the matching box with curvy window has the shapes and colors to suit my fancy. I especially enjoy the strip with colorful writing.

No matter how tasty the cocoa based treat may be, it can always be made more delicious when wrapped in a confection of colors, shapes and textures. 

Packaging Design - Getting Ideas

A piggy bank. (Atypyk)

I once read an article that inspired me to keep designing. How? It wasn't all about how to make contacts, and how to make sure you kern, or who knows who. It wasn't about a specific artist and how cool they are, or the issues in the art world. It directly related to me. She explained how she goes about getting ideas.

I don't know where the article is now, and finding it would involve rifling through the hundreds of art and design magazines piled up in my room, but the concepts are still in my head.

One. Take an object. Anything random - a pencil sharpener, a banana, the box of toenail shavings you have saved in your drawer.

Two. Look at it.

Three. See it not as it is, but as it could be. A pencil sharpener can be a pencil stand, a banana can be made into a boat for Barbies.

Ok, so those are terrible ideas, but you get the picture. Make it your own by looking at the packaging in a new way. Turn it upside down, lick it a little.

Fast forward to today. I was looking at a few designer's websites for blog ideas, and I came across Atypyk, a French "idea" group that had an incredible imagination-filled portfolio. They took that brainstorming guide and made an entire company out of it. Below are some pictures from their site - you can find more by going to the link on their home-page entitled "watsdat?".

A picture frame.

A candle.

A doormat.