The Most Recent Posts:
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Improving the Shelf Life of Fresh-Cut Fruits and Vegetables - According to information from the AMI (agricultural market information service) in Bonn/Germany, the world produces nearly 1.5 billion tonnes of fruit and vegetables, of which 800 million tonnes vegetables and nearly 700 million tonnes fruits.
Fruit and vegetables play an important role in healthy nutrition and are high on the list of consumer priorities. However the major obstacle of purchasing ready-to-eat fresh-cut fruits and vegetables is their short shelf life, leading to quick degeneration and decomposition of the product and undesirable look and negative palatability. Fruit and vegetables are living products undergoing a ripening and ….. read the full article
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Wine in a Ready-to-Drink Glass - Attracting new consumers is crucial for winemakers, as consumption has been declining in most mature markets. And so the ubiquitous 750-milliliter glass wine bottle has gotten competition from new types of packaging primarily intended to make wine more accessible to new consumer groups and to extend drinking occasions.
Following the success of bag-in-box formats and innovative initiatives that range from pouches to mini barrels, wine in …. continue reading
Wednesday, 3 Febr. 2010
Eating Your Ready-to-Eat Dinner in Style - This is not a focus on ready-cooked fast-food, but on well-prepared, high-quality, nicely presented everyday (home-delivered) dinners and party dinners. A little bit different from the famous fish-and-chips wrapped in yesterday’s newspaper. Your choice: Eating your ready-to-eat dinner directly from a plastic tray or off a proper china plate.
Until now, ready-cooked meals have had a limited market because there has not been a good way of presenting them onto a china plate, let alone transfer them from …….. continue reading
Thursday, 28 Jan. 2010
WalMart Brasil’s Next Step in the “Green World” - WalMart, one of the most controversial companies in the world, has set its next step in the world of sustainability and ‘greenness’. Well, in Brazil that is.
Amazing, as Brazil is one of the biggest polluters in the world, is infamous for its ‘big mouth’ and empty words in regard to its natural treasures (Amazon, Pantanal, Cerrado etc), its negligence of implementing selective waste collection systems and waste management and its unwillingness to draft and enforce laws to reduce the tremendous problems of landfills.
Within this typical Brazilian ‘Wild West’ environment, the sustainability step …. continue reading
Monday, 25 Jan. 2010
Foldable dvd-case with Electroluminescent Animation - The nano-electronics research centre IMEC, the Hasselt University in Belgium and the Belgian screen printing company Artist Screen created a spin-off, called Lumoza NV. The new company develops and commercializes large area screen printed electronics for the advertising and packaging industry. Lumoza’s technology for screen printed electronics combines electroluminescent ink with a driver that controls the sequence and timing of the animation. The result is an electroluminescent computer animation that can be printed, just like …. continue reading
Saturday, 23 Jan. 2010
Developments in RFID - An Overview (Part 03) - I know RFID is not a glamorous item, (except that the results can be) but more importantly RFID is of overriding importance to the future developments in packaging and not only to the technology of it, but without doubt also to the future possibilities of design. So continue reading.
In the meantime we have reached the year 2009, in which RFID gets its extra dimension. Were the first pilot-projects of Wal-Mart and Metro, as described in part 01, concentrated around pallets and shipping cases, and later selectively implemented, due to the high prices of the tags, around up-scale consumer products, in 2009 RFID entered into mass production.
In the beginning companies had the choice between two modes of ……. continue reading
Wednesday, 20 Jan. 2010
Developments in RFID - Overview (Part 02) - As I wrote in my previous post: Let’s walk through some of the most interesting developments of the last couple of years. In chronological order. Here we go.
The SmartCorq - In 2006 Lab-ID patented a system using artificial corks embedded with RFID inlays. The, so called, SmartCorq, allowed wine producers to provide their customers with greater assurance of the quality and provenance of each bottle of wine. The tag can be encoded with such wine data as bottling date, type of grape and alcohol percentage, along with other characteristics. Once in the bottle, the cork’s tag can be read by wine producers to help them store and distribute their products. Distributors, retailers and consumers, meanwhile, can use the cork to determine specific details about each bottle of wine. …… continue reading
Friday, 15 Jan. 2010
Innovative and Prestigious – The “CEvolution Bottle” - Trends in the packaging reflect society at large. Twenty years ago, the consumer products companies were running the show, high-speed lines, runnability of the packaging material, automated liners and practical and low-cost solutions were their priorities. Ten years ago, it was the consumer, started to rule the show by asking more detailed products information, more convenient and at the same time fancy packaging. Next came the consumer request ….. continue reading
Wednesday, 13 Jan. 2010
Developments in RFID – An Overview (Part 01) - The direct cause that did decide me to write an article about RFID, was the introduction of CypoPrint, the name BASF in Germany gave to a new range of metal-based inks destined for the production of flexible antennas for RFID tags. Reading that press-release I realized that it had been quite some time that I wrote about radio frequency identification (RFID) in relation to packaging. It’s quite a story, so I have cut it in three posts.
For my readers who are not familiar with RFID the following: RFID, the abbreviation for radio frequency identification, is a generic term that is used … continue reading
Thursday, 07 Jan. 2010
Green Bottle Carriers - The end of the year always is the prime period during which you see people carrying bottles. It is not surprising therefore, that the packaging industry introduced new ‘Bottle Carriers’ during these last months of the year. Let’s have a look at what we encountered. ….. continue reading
Tuesday, 05 Jan. 2010
2010: Trends in Packaging - Some readers have asked me to write, as a follow-up to my post: “The 12 Most Impressive Packaging Innovations in 2009”, an article about the trends in packaging innovation to be expected in 2010.
I am not a crystal-glazer and who am I to pretend to be able to envision the future trends in packaging. In general I find articles about trends often only mirroring the wishful-thinking of the author or at best an enumeration of generalities.
Nevertheless it is a very interesting challenge, which I have been given ……. continue reading
Thursday, 31 Dec. 2009
The 12 Most Impressive Packaging Innovations in 2009 - This is my last post of 2009 and I thought it interesting to give my readers an overview of the, in my opinion, most impressive innovations in packaging of this year. Enjoy it and have a delightful turn of the Year. ….. continue reading
Wednesday, 30 Dec. 2009
The 2009 Packaging ‘Goofies’ From Around The World - Are the packages I describe here, the result of some idiotic, stupid and incompetent designers? No, not at all, on the contrary. I just used the word ‘goofy’ to catch your attention, although ….. some are the result of a far-too-free-flowing brainwave and some are simple and brilliant, just that little bit extra to pop-off the supermarket shelves. Unfortunately they didn’t attract attention in the professional media.
It’s a tour around the world. Judge for yourself. … continue reading
Thursday, 24 Dec. 2009
Bio-based Plastics From Algae - An Old is New Again Story - Some weeks ago California-based Cereplast announced the manufacturing of plastics from algae. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly and although of significant importance the press release didn’t get the attention in the (professional) media that it deserved. Why? I think algae are not glamorous and everybody thinks it’s a far away technology. A wishful thinking. But is it? ….. continue reading
Friday, 18 Dec. 2009
A Touch of Class Enters the Boxed Wine Category - In the beverage alcohol market it is wine which is the primary growth driver, while at the same time the wine industry’s low margins and commodity market dynamics have made it the toughest sector of drinks for packaging innovation.
Although the majority of wines is still bottled in glass, the larger format sector for wine, targeting the mainstream wine consumer, is dominated by the Bag-in-Box (BiB), worth some USD 500m in retail sales in the UK and over USD 1,5bn across the Scandinavian markets. …. continue reading
Monday, 14 Dec. 2009
The 10 Most Read Articles in 2009 - The end of the year is approaching which led me to review the contents of my blog. It has been a successful year with a steady grow to some 15,000 unique visitors per month and still growing. Recapping on which articles generated the most interest amongst the readers, I compiled an overview of the ten most visited articles. Interestingly, an article giving an overview of design in vodka bottles with little or none technical details was the most read story, while I thought that there were more than sufficient packaging design blogs on the web. Fortunately for me, the vodka bottle article has been closely followed by articles with more technical content and innovation, as that’s exactly what I intended with my blog. Solely writing about design or simply showing some pictures is not what “Best In Packaging” is about. Packaging innovation with an accent on sustainability and recyclability is what this blog makes attractive. My steadily growing number of readers boosts my belief that I’m on the right track. … continue reading
Sunday, 13 Dec. 2009
Brazil’s small-scale business model for recycling post-consumer Tetra Paks - In a never ending process many a ‘green’ website maintains the discussion alive whether Tetra Pak containers are recyclable or not or whether Tetra Pak’s claim to be sustainable is correct. The ‘simpletons’ even want to ban Tetra Pak from the packaging world. Ignorance reigns supreme. I will be the last one to claim that Tetra Paks aren’t a problem in the recycling process and unfortunately mainly end-up on landfills (to stay there for hundreds of years). But it has to be said that it’s not all Tetra Pak’s fault.
Before I continue I have to state, that I am a believer in source-responsibility. In other ….. read the full article
Wednesday, 10 Dec. 2009
Is ‘Anyway’ the answer? - One of the consumer’s great frustrations after having bought a product with a pump spray or an aerosol, is, that in effect they are designed only to work in an upright position. Existing pump spray containers have a dip tube with only one hole, which have to ‘swim’ in the liquid to guarantee proper spraying and that only is the case when sufficient liquid is left in the container and the container is held upright while spraying.
A new concept is said to overcome these frustrations. British inventor Michael Pritchard developed ‘Anyway’ as an alternative to conventional aerosols and trigger sprays, that can be used upside down and without leaving any residue at the bottom of the container. …. read the full article
Sunday, 06 Dec. 2009
IML and High-Speed Thin-Wall Technology - Where “injection moulding” is concerned, it is the international trade fair for plastics processing Fakuma in Friedrichshafen (Germany) where the experts meet. For years now, it’s ranked as one of the leading plastics trade forums, this year held in October.
And that was the place where Beck Automation AG introduced its new IML high-speed thin-wall technology. For the first time Beck labelled transparent polystyrene (PS) thin wall cups with a 3.3 seconds cycle time per shot for 4 cups.. .. continue reading
Friday, 27 Nov. 2009
Chocolate Fondue in 2 minutes - Finally the holiday season is coming up. Although Christmas time is a period to contemplate, appreciate and relax, after a very stressful and for some depressing year, it is at the same time a period with countless home celebrations and festive get-togethers. It’s always a good idea to include a designated driver as part of the party planning. What’s better then enjoy chocolate to calm the nerves and get back to normal. ….. continue reading
Tuesday, 24 Nov. 2009
The Promising Potential of Bio-based Plastics (part 2) - One of the main drivers to develop bio-based plastics is the goal to provide the market with biodegradable plastics, in order to solve the problem of rapidly increasing amounts of waste and limited landfill capacities. Although in some densely populated industrialized countries with limited landfill capacity, waste is nowadays primarily disposed off in municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) plants, plastic waste management remains an issue in rural areas and in developing or emerging countries. Plastics are also increasingly polluting nature and …. read the full article
Thursday, 19 Nov. 2009
Cubis – Innovative ‘cubed’ Beverage Bottles - Design creativity never failed the beverage industry, but seldom led to an efficient and optimal use of transport and storage facilities in the supply chain or even an optimal use of the available space on the shelves in the supermarket aisles.
To optimize the mentioned facilities a beverage bottle (or packaging in general) should be a rectangular cuboid (six rectangular faces), also called a rectangular hexahedron, or rectangular parallelepiped. And that’s exactly what Cubis came up with. … read the full article
Tuesday, 17 Nov. 2009
The Potential of Bio-based Plastics - Bio-based plastics can be defined as man-processed organic macromolecules derived from biological resources and used for plastic and fibre applications. Scientists at the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation recently published a study, titled: “Product overview and market projection of emerging bio-based plastics.”
The study presents the bio-based production routes, material properties, technical substitution potentials, applications today and tomorrow, emerging producers and wherever possible, costs. ….. more
Friday, 13 Nov. 2009
Cultivated in Transit - Let’s have a look at one more futuristic vision in packaging. The vision departs from the supposition that convenience, and product difference - aspects that were the typical characteristics of food products in the last decade - are taking a backseat in a world now more focusing on making a positive impact on freshness, taste and health, as well as the sustainability of the planet.
Our obsession with fresh food irrespective of season and ….. continue reading
Monday, 09 Nov. 2009
Fancy Packaging Ideas - Worldwide industrial designers come up with new packaging ideas, a large part of these ideas is just self-employment, in other words there is no client involved. They are just the fruits of a creative spirit, no commercial or technical requirements and restrictions limiting the brainwave. Of course a great deal is useless, too far fetched or impossible to execute or manufacture. But sometimes you encounter a packaging design concept, of which you say: “Nice idea, maybe it is worth to give it a try.” …. Continue reading
Wednesday, 04 Nov, 2009
Packaging Dictionary - The Packaging Dictionary has been updated extensively per Nov. 01, 2009. A large number of definitions has been added, as well as a large amount of printing definitions.
Looking for a packaging or printing related definition? Click here.
Wednesday, 04 Nov. 2009
Short, Shorter, the Shortest (Part 2) - As the beverage industry appears to be ready to adopt the new neck-finish standard, e.g. from PCO 1810 (5.1g / 21mm length) to PCO 1881 ISBT (3.8g / 17mm), lightweight solutions are literally in everyone’s mind and consequently a number of different so-called short-neck closures have hit the market. Let’s look at some of them. …. read the full article.
Wednesday, 04 Nov. 2009
Short, Shorter, the Shortest - The item I want to handle today, doesn’t belong to the glamorous part of packaging. However its existence and eventual evolution have tremendous impact on the beverage industry and as a consequence on the sustainability credentials of the beverage packaging: the bottle.
The new short-height neck-finish standard PCO 1881, which has been recently agreed upon within the International Society of Beverage Technologists (ISBT), is making serious inroads in the market for …… read the full article.
Friday, 30 Oct. 2009
CupCan and CreaTin - Creative Design in Steel Cans - When the Institute of Medicine (IOM) called in its 2009 report “School Meals” for increasing the amount and variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, along with reducing saturated fat and sodium, the Canned Food Alliance jumped on the bandwagon and waved vigorously with a study of the University of California at Davis, that concludes that all forms of fruits and vegetables - canned, fresh and frozen - are nutritionally similar and contribute important nutrients that comprise a healthy diet.
The goal of this action of the Canned Food Alliance is obvious. Although steel cans belong to the select group of ….. continue reading
Monday, 28 Oct.2009
The Evolution of the Stand-Up Pouch (Part 2) - There are innumerable ways to design original stand-up pouches using the ultimate in technology to accentuate the brand’s presence on the shelves. Keep in mind that more than two thirds of purchasing decisions are made in the aisle. The competition is decided then and there by what the consumer favours, and it is on the shelves that the brand must make the impact. The only problem is, as it often is in the packaging world, the application of revolutionary technologies and/or material compositions, isn’t always recognised or even recognisable by the consumer…. read the full article
Tuesday, 20 Oct. 2009
True Innovation from Process to Packaging - Preshafruit’s unique triangular bottle really sets it apart from other offerings in the juice aisle. Quite often a fruit juice receives lauding words, but in this case every word is well earned by this exceptional innovation of Preshafood for its fruit juice range which uses a new high pressure processing system and consequently is presented in unique triangular bottles. ….. read the full article
Thursday, 08 Oct 2009
4-Fresh or Quattro – Original or Copycat - KR Castlemaine, an Australian meat processor, launched an innovative new four-pack design for fine meat products. The four-pack, neatly held together by a printed outer cardboard sleeve, is a revolutionary design for the small-goods category, delivering key benefits to the retail trade.
Optimo Designs, one of Australia’s leading graphic design agencies won Gold and Silver at the prestigious 2008 Australian Packaging Awards for this “innovative” 4-Fresh-design for KR Castlemaine. Despite globalisation it still can happen obviously that at one side of the globe a company introduces a new packaging design as being revolutionary and award winning while at the other end of the globe …. read the full article
Tuesday, 06 Oct. 2009
The Evolution of the Stand-Up Pouch - The flexible packaging market includes all kinds of pouches, but the popular stand-up pouch was and still is the most impressive driver in the flexible packaging market, particularly with the breakthrough of the various material compositions, the re-closable zipper and other fitments that enhance consumer convenience, and have led stand-up pouches move dramatically into new applications.
The stand-up pouch found it’s origin in 1968, when Louis Doyen, CEO of the French packaging machin …… read the full article
Wednesday, 30 Sept. 2009
Unique closure Creates a Serving-Tray - This upside-down package, called 1-Seal Kupa, is specifically designed to allow for the lid of the package to be used in upside-down position as a serving tray for the Arboga/Atria skivbarpastej (sliceable pâté). The design of the lid/tray of the packaging allows the vacuum seal to be broken while opening the container without damaging the meat product inside. This was accomplished by …. continue reading
Friday, 25 Sept. 2009
Pick and Place Technology for Fragile Fresh Fruit - The fresh fruit packaging in itself is not subject to spectacular innovations as it hasn’t seen any in years, still being the (corrugated) cardboard box tray as it was decades ago. Packaging companies might have modified the way the box tray is set up, but you can’t report of any significant innovation. That said, it does mean that any innovation in efficiently packing of fresh and fragile fruit has to come from the machinery companies. Well, here is one of them.
In the country of the kiwi’s, Stroba Ltd, developed a Pick and Place Autopacker to pack Kiwi fruit …. read the full article
Monday, 21 Sept. 2009
A Perfect Complement with the Compliments of the Publisher - How can you get special attention in the book trade for one of your strong titles with which the (female) reader dives into great emotional worlds. This question stood at the top of the deliberations about how to market the new title of Nicole C. Vosseler, “Unter dem Safranmond” (Under the Saffron Moon) and published by the Lauterbacher publishing house Lübbe.
And when a critic wrote: “Unter dem Safranmond” is an entertaining love story that especially appeals to female readers moving them to tears.” the (marketing) idea was born……. continue reading
Monday, 21 Sept. 2009
Is The Allure of Real Wood Eco-friendly? - In one of my last posts I wrote about natural packaging materials, as bamboo and ceramics. Although requiring special attention during production, natural packaging materials are able to create beautiful packages that turn them into ‘born’ collector’s items with an exceptional high attention value.
One of these materials is wood veneer. Let’s start with the ecological consequences and eco-friendliness of wood veneer in general and as packaging material in particular. … read the full article
Sunday, 20 Sept. 2009
The Amazon and the Pantanal Free of Sugarcane? Well, Sort of - With the new zoning for sugarcane, the Lula government plans to impede the production of sugarcane in the Amazon and the Pantanal, in so far that it will not allow the expansion of the production of these crops in the Amazônia Legal and the Pantanal. Thus, more than half the country will be exempted from sugarcane production? Well, not quite, as Lula com suis. only are talking about the expansion and not about the existing sugarcane production in these areas. …. continue reading
Saturday, 19 Sept. 2009
The Cerrado Suffers Worse Than The Amazon - Each year Brazil deforests an area of 20 square kilometres of the savannah region, here called the Cerrado. That’s twice as much as what Brazil is deforesting in the Amazon.
Minister of the Environment, Carlos Minc, announced the approval of an amendment to the Constitution which makes the Cerrado and the Caatinga national heritage. “It’s of utmost importance that we also extend the … continue reading
Friday, 18 Sept. 2009
Horrendous Graphics Softened by High-Technology Printing - The overall decrease in smokers poses a challenge to packaging manufacturers which supply tobacco companies, as opportunities for growth dwindle and competition for remaining customers grows fierce. Some bright spots for the tobacco packaging industry are left. However, as anti-smoking regulations continue to spread across the world, such opportunities for the tobacco industry are expected to vaporize, and packaging manufacturers will be forced to diversify applications into which they supply, in order to secure future growth. .. read the full article
Thursday, 17 Sept. 2009
Tri-Ply’s Ingenious Tripod-Shaped Box - Tri Ply displays one of the worlds most popular and functional cookware concepts. UK based branding and design consultancy Nicepond, nominated for the Sustainable Pack of the Year Award, marks a significant breakthrough in packaging design with its Tri-Ply eco-packaging.
The innovative concept was commissioned by leading home ware and kitchen retailer, Lakeland, for its new pan range, with a very clear strategy from the outset: the new packaging would have to do justice to the modern and innovative nature of the product, create an eye-catching design, reduce cost, communicate the benefits to the consumer and be eco-friendly. … continue reading
Monday, 14 Sept. 2009
Multi-pack Combines Two Seemingly Inconsistent Bottles - What to do, when you want to sell your beer in the country where pilsner is originated and which country has a long heritage of brewing the best beers in the world.
With the Holiday Season in mind, Heineken decided to go for a gift pack, they brewed a Premium Speciality beer in a 1,5 litre champagne-like bottle and wanted to add 6 standard 0,5 litre bottles of Heineken. And with this marketing decision they created a packaging problem: Design a promotional Multi-pack containing two different types of bottles. The 1,5 litre bottle with the dimensions: 100 mm (4”) diameter and 380 mm (15”) height and the 6 half-litre bottles each with a diameter of 70 mm (2.75”) and a height of 268 mm (10.55”).
Ondrej Navrátil, a box designer with Smurfit Kappa Olomouc s.r.o. in the Czech Republic came up with a beautiful solution for a multi-pack. …. read the full article
Thursday, 10 Sept. 2009
From Doy-Pack to S-Pouttle - Looking at the many introductions of ‘new’ products in stand-up pouches this packaging format has gained a lot of popularity in the USA, in part because of the requirement to minimize solid waste, in part because of cost, and in part for the possibilities to increase shelf appeal as they allow for excellent billboarding within the retail aisle.
An early stand-up pouch design (US Patent 3,380,646) was devised by the Doyen Brothers in France. That pouch design, including many variants, is still in use today. It is, in fact, the dominant style. The basic Doyen design consists of two flat sheets sealed together along their sides, with a “W” fold running along the bottom. When the pouch is filled, the “W” opens and ……. read the full article
Wednesday, 09 Sept. 2009
The Packaging Dictionary has been updated extensively per Sept. 09, 2009. A large number of definitions, particularly for the pharmaceutical and medical branch has been added, as well as various printing definitions. Looking for a packaging related definition? Click here or choose a letter below:
A * B * C * D * E * F * G * H * I * J * K * L * M * N * O
P * Q * R * S * T * U * V * W * X * Y * Z
Monday, 07 September 2009
A New Look at Latin American Culture - Perfumária Natura, Brazil’s leading cosmetics industry, launched a line called Amor América, with products made with raw materials originating from the Andes and Patagonia regions. To spicing up the launch, Natura bought for USD 1 million, the rights of the poem “Amor América”.
But not only is the name special. The new Natura fragrances find their origin in beautiful and threatened Latin America. With a special name and exquisite products, the packages also have to be special. And they are. The bottles, stylistic reproductions of calabashes, are inspired by the … read the full article
Sunday, 06 September 2009
Morality and Ethics - A Voice in the Wilderness - The ethical and moral degradation that currently rages in the Brazilian Senate - labelled the “House of Horrors” by British magazine “The Economist” and also known as: House of Ali Baba and the 40 Robbers, House of the Maharajas, House of the “I’m not there for to people”, House of Nepotism, House of the ‘Colonels’ and other sly foxes. … read the full article
Sunday, 06 September 2009
Sugar Cane, Bamboo and Ceramics - Sugar Cane, bamboo and ceramics belong to the oldest packaging materials used by mankind. Although fully natural and sustainable materials neither sugar cane, nor bamboo are used any longer as packaging material and even packaging made in ceramics have a special aureole and are rarely used in mass production. If a ceramic image for the mass-produced packaging is required designers … continue reading
Sunday, 06 September 2009
A double-digit economic grow is no guarantee for a prominent position in the world - There were 93 million Brazilians, the industry still crawled and inflation edged at 20%. This was the 1969 profile of Brazil. Four decades later, Brazilians have experienced the effects of external crises, the default on external debt, inflation that exceeded 2,000% and a jumping industry. The boom lasted until ….. continue reading
Thursday, 03 Sept. 2009
Braille On Pharma Packaging - In 2010, European packages containing pharmaceuticals must have Braille embossing to identify the contents. This mandate is spurring other countries and pharmaceutical companies to adopt technologies which add Braille to their consumer packages.
The number of people that can be categorized as blind or partially sighted increases each year, mainly as a result of …. read the full article
Thursday, 03 Sept. 2009
Braille and Packaging - This year it is 200 years since the Frenchman Louis Braille (1809-1852) was born. Following a new EU directive (2004/27/CE No) which requires all packages of pharmaceutical products to bear the Braille characters, several packaging companies have developed their own unique technology to add Braille characters to the surfaces of packages, such as Sleever Braille, the CCL’s BrailleMarker, the AccuBraille system of Bobst and Nordson’s e.dot….. read the full article.
Tuesday, 01 Sept. 2009
A Genetic Fingerprint in Colour-Code - Like a genetic fingerprint, SecuPack, developed by 3S Simons Security Systems GmbH, can be added to primary and secondary packaging as a legally binding counterfeit protection. The SecuPack 3S technology is based on the smallest micro colour-code particles, called SecuTag. SecuTags are made of melamine alkyd polymers, manufactured in different sizes ranging from 8 to 90 micrometers (µm). With the so-called …. read the full article
Tuesday, 01 Sept. 2009
Counterfeiting: The Industry is on the Wrong Track - All hi-tech solutions, as inks, authentication, tracking and tracing are useless. You can only track and trace your own genuine products, not the counterfeited ones as they don’t have the codes. So, what happens: You discover a non-coded fake. What does it give you? In the meantime consumers have bought a fake and are disappointed by the quality, taste, fragrance and never buy your brand again. ….. read the full article
Friday, 28 Aug. 2009
“Taste of Echt” in a Corrugated Cardboard Beer Crate - Four characteristic small old family-owned Dutch beer brewers decided to enter into an alliance to market their speciality beers together. To commemorate this alliance they commissioned BooM Packaging, an agency specialized in brand and packaging design, to develop a unique brand and structural packaging design for 12 bottles of beer. The design needed to meet the marketing communication values: heritage, authenticity, small business, inspiration and experience. … read the full article
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Gauloises Blondes in a Tin with a Zipper - You are not smoking anymore? That is a pity really, as you will miss a beautiful packaging from one of the most famous iconic cigarettes in the world.
Gauloises is a typical French cigarette brand. The name means “Gallic”, and the emblem is the helmet of a Gallic warrior.
But what to do with this icon facing declining sales?
Following a recent trend in contemporary design of metal cans, speciality can manufacturer Virojanglor developed a zipped tin for the brand Gauloises Blondes.
Surpassing the limits and going one step further Virojanglor started to mix other materials with metal. Although steel is the … read the full article.
Sunday, 23 Aug. 2009
A Presidential Dictionary - Based on Lula’s speeches, a new book, written by the journalist Ali Kamel, examines Lula’s popularity, in spite of his verbal excessiveness.
In the public opinion there are three Lula’s:
President Lula is a great orator, a communicator with no equals ,,
President Lula is a politician who deliberately simplifies, for electoral purposes, the complex task of ….
President Lula is the undisputed leader or a puppet on a string of a movement, called here in Brazil petralha. Petralha is … read the full article
Sunday, 23 Aug. 2009
Electroluminescent Technology and its Eye-Catching Potential - In principal packaging serves product protection (conservation) and promotion. Organic and printed electronics could help manufacturers upgrade packaging plastics to active early warning systems or cardboard boxes to multi-media information carriers. Current trends and the latest developments in this area were on display last June at the LOPE-C, the Organic & Printed Electronics Convention, in Frankfurt, Germany. In this post I like to highlight the promotion and marketing aspects using high-sophisticated printing technologies. .. read the full article
Sunday, 23 Aug. 2009
Organic and printed electronics offer new packaging functions - Researchers at the Centre for Printed Intelligence (CPI) of the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland showed an electronic spoilage sensor concept for poultry. The core of the concept is a resistance sensor which can be inkjet printed onto the packaging material. The sensor’s resistivity changes, when … read the full article
Wednesday, 19 Aug. 2009
Shaping Glass for Vodka - As colour in an exhaustive rainbow is screaming from the shelves, shape might be in the better position to attract the consumer. Vodka traditionally is packaged in glass bottles. Glass is one of those materials with almost unlimited possibilities in shaping and a wide range of decoration techniques. As a consequence spirits brands are masters at crafting shapely bottles. A world full of shapes and colours. … read the full article
Tuesday, 18 Aug. 2009
From Naked to Clad in Leather - Absolut Vodka’s “No Label” bottle features “naked” bottles that are numbered and contain no label or logo. The campaign was launched to bring attention to the negative influences of putting “labels” on alternative lifestyles such as gays and transsexuals. At the same time, however, the company is introducing a leather-and-stud clad version of its distinctive bottle, to commemorate the anniversary of seminal rock event Woodstock… read the full article.
Sunday, 16 Aug. 2009
Lula’s Launderette - Ex-Senator Antonio Carlos Magalhães, Godfather of the oligarchic family who rules Bahia inaugurated Lula’s Launderette.
Between Antonio Carlos Magalhães and José Sarney, another Godfather of an oligarchic family, this time in the federal state of Maranhâo, member of one of the most corrupt political parties in the country the PMDB, and the latest customer of Lula’s Launderette, Lula handled a lot of dirty laundry.
Lula doesn’t transform dirty clothes in immaculate clothes. Up till now, he does not work miracles. But Lula always tries to prevent that the grubby clothes in play end up ……. read the full article
Thursday, 13 Aug. 2009
Renew-A-Pak compostable bakeware from Biosphere Industries - This new 100 percent renewable content baking tray and total system might change bakery processes in a more sustainable way. Bakery practice is to bake its products in (disposable) metal trays and transfer the goods into a separate packaging for in store sales. Ultimately that packaging would be discarded as waste by the consumer. The (pre-)baked products now stay in the new dual-ovenable, microwaveable trays all the way through to the consumer …. read the full article.
Thursday, 13 Aug. 2009
A Cup of Freshly Brewed Coffee - Anytime, Anywhere - Coffee is the world’s biggest beverage product as anybody needs his coffee-shot (caffeine-free or not) in the morning to get his daily-motor started.
Don’t count the Brits as they will stay with their precious cup-of-tea till the end of days. Or better: count with the Brits, as the tea-bag is exactly the item which laid the groundwork for this new innovation.
Simple and brilliant. Or simply brilliant which leaves you with the question, with all that millions of tea-bags used daily, why somebody didn’t come up with this idea earlier. Anyway, the Swedish company OneCafé launched, ….. read the full article.
Monday, 10 Aug. 2009
Taking a Consumer Product to the Level of Fine Art - The bottle of the latest version of the exclusive FlowerbyKenzo fragrance is capped by an ingenious, high resolution flower image captured by Rexam via the latest in tampo printing technology.
The tampo printing process transfers the ink from an etched printing plate to any kind of surface using a silicone rubber pad. Constant refinement of this process, which in the case of FlowerByKenzo involves precise registration of the four colours, has resulted in a fragrance closure that showcases new levels of photographic realism with beautiful contrast and depth. … read the full article.
Thursday, 06 Aug. 2009
Pop Goes the Popcorn - the Pop-Up Popcorn Bowl - Popcorn is typically packed in a bag which is partially folded to enables it to inflate, as a result of steam pressure from the heated kernels, when placed in a microwave. It is an area where innovation is almost unknown.
UK retailer Marks & Spencer invited design students to explore the field of children’s packaging. Furthermore, the design had to take into account the environmental impact of packaging and child safety, and still be functional both for the consumer and for the producer and retailer.
The result was an ingenious popcorn pack, designed by Anni Nykänen, a student at the Lahti Institute of Design in Finland. The design has visual impact which is heightened by the transformation of the pack shape as the contents are heated in the microwave and expand. … read the full article.
Tuesday, 04 Aug. 2009
Food Safety - Temperature Sensitive Labels Destroy Barcodes - Recently packaging professionals were asked to rate the importance of 10 factors when developing new packaging, with a score of one indicating little effect and five a high effect. As in previous years, food safety is the top consideration, with cost, product protection and preservation following suit.
Although time-temperature labels are a well-known phenomena in the packaging industry, they all have the problem that the colour changes are not visible for the consumer, and that they go back to there original status in case the product goes back within the pre-set temperature range.
Tempix of Sweden currently launched a new temperature indicator that destroys barcodes on labels if …… continue reading.
Tuesday, 04 Aug. 2009
Packaging Dictionary - When you decide to create a dictionary, you know in advance that it never will be complete. Day-to-day life, developments and innovations create new products, words and abbreviations. Therefore the packaging dictionary I posted on my blog will be under perpetual construction, adding new definitions daily. However the result, as it is, is worth a visit. Looking for a definition in the wide world of packaging? Visit Packaging Dictionary.
Advice, suggestions, additions and comments are always welcome.
Saturday, 01 Aug. 2007
Virtual Design Takes off at Procter & Gamble - About 10 percent of the packaging in stores serves no useful purpose. It doesn’t protect the product. It doesn’t improve the customer experience. It doesn’t do anything. It’s only in there because no one engineered it out.
The traditional paradigm of focusing solely on physical prototypes no longer makes sense. It’s a very expensive and time-consuming process and isn’t the best way to determine if a product is fit for use. Virtual design is the answer.
One of the big virtual packaging success stories at P&G was the development of the first plastic coffee canister…… read the full story.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Pizza Wedges for On-The-Go - You are busy, you want a quick lunch, you crave for a pizza, you have a choice: an entire pizza and throw away what you can’t eat or choose something else and feel frustrated, or …
With the on-the-go and the one-portion market in mind and attracting people who want to eat a wedge of their favourite food at any time anywhere, without the necessity to buy an entire pizza, the Hot Pocket line of Sadia in Brazil is enhanced with the Hot Pocket Pizza, which …… continue reading.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
About Composite Cans and the Perfect Example - The composite can is one of the most widely used packages on grocery store shelves. Used for food and non-food applications, available in numerous sizes with various label and barrier options as well as easy opening features. Although often seen as a simple packaging format for simple products (see my post: “EcoPak and Ecocentric - What’s in a Name?”, there are some examples of brilliant design using the composite can in the upscale market. One of these examples is the Biznaga assortment of Spanish specialties for the Gourmet and Delicatessen sector, which uses …. read the full article.
Monday, 27 July 2009
The Quad-Bag-In-Box - On my blog “Best In Packaging” I recently posted various articles about wine in Bag-in-Box, one of the fast moving packaging formats in the wine industry. To be sturdy a Bag-in-Box system generally has to consist of a heavy duty outer box to hold the pillow inner bag which tends to cause undue pressure on the outer box.
Some years ago, Elite Packaging in the UK, developed a gusseted bag, which is sealed in each corner of the bag. The advantage of this new and revolutionary design is that the bag becomes more stable, is more-or-less square and sits better and more efficient in a cardboard box. It forms a cubic shape when filled and its unique structure ensures minimal lateral bulge. The Quad Bag (2 words) was born….. continue reading
Monday, 27 July 2009
Artfully ‘Green’ Packages for Fresh Greens - Designed to protect each product as well as the environment, the new packages adopted by Tanimura & Antle Fresh Foods Inc. and Earthbound Farm are almost as “green” as the products themselves. One claims that its living lettuce is “so beautiful, that it comes with a bodyguard,” i.e. a new, custom-designed scalloped clamshell for Artisan Lettuce, the other is completely different as the company decided to switch to 100% PCR PET. …. read the full article
Friday, 24 July 2009
Creativity with Cardboard - Some 60 design students at the Université de Reims (IUT) took part in Korsnäs’ Packaging Impact Design Award 2009 competition in mid-May, resulting in an impressive exhibition of packaging and displays.
Since 1994, Korsnäs (formerly Frövi) has been arranging design competitions for students with a focus on packaging design. In conjunction with the Swedish Year of Design 2005, when the Swedish government was actively promoting design projects, PIDA (Packaging Impact Design Award) was born and several universities became involved. Spurred on by popularity, the competition has grown and is held in Sweden, Germany and France. … continue reading
Friday, 24 July 2009
EcoPak and Ecocentric - What’s in a Name? - The packaging is plantable! Out of the box and into the garden, The moulded fibre box is the first of its kind. A 100% compostable, biodegradable and plantable product packaging. It is manufactured with zero waste and created from 100% post-consumer paper board, without glues and dies. Soak the box for one minute and plant it about 1” deep in soil. Before you know it, medicinal herbs will spring up right before your eyes! …. read the full article
Monday, 20 July 2009
“Optimum Pack” - An Optimal Eco-Design - Developed in 2008 as the optimal environmental solution in packaging by CGL Pack, a small but very innovative packaging company in Annecy/France, the “Optimum Pack” finally encountered its first customer: the French manufacturer of diced cheese “Menus du Monde” (Menus of the World).
CGL Pack developed a 300 ml (110 g of product) format which is now available as standard and complemented it with ….. continue reading
Monday, 20 July 2009
At the other side of the world A&C Packers of Australia developed an Easy Pour Container For Dangerous Liquids. To bypass the generally necessary fluorination step, they designed a proprietary six-layer extrusion/blow-moulded HDPE container with the alternative barrier made of DuPont’s Selar polyamide, an amorphous nylon resin that needs no fluorination. Besides the special barrier construction, the container also offers a new 63-mm, Easy Pour “glug-free”, tamper-evident, wedge-seal neck design from Dorony Pty Ltd. An elegant solution to the glugging problem which …….. read the full article
Friday, 17 July 2009
Brazilians and Their Values - “Values” was the subject of a study as part of the Brazilian Human Development Report, commissioned by the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP). According to the study, questioning 500 thousand Brazilians, the country, even today, is lacking values. With the open question: “What should change in Brazil to really improve your life?”, most responded with: the lack of respect, honesty, justice, peace, love, the absence of prejudice, humanity, the spiritual value, responsibility and awareness, together with the expected: education, safety, health and employment. .. continue reading
Friday, 17 July 2009
Safely Dispensing Chemicals and Pesticides with the ShakerPak - Ampac Flexibles’ patented, recloseable, ShakerPak dispensing stand-up pouch to handle dry chemical or granular products, is unique in that the bottom of the bag has been replaced with an inside perforated layer allowing dispensing without scooping or direct physical contact with the product. There are different configurations and sizes of perforations depending on the size and consistency of the products. Below the perforation is a press-to-close zipper for recloseability. The package includes a laser score tear strip for tamper evidence and product protection. ….. continue reading
Friday, 17 July 2009
The Trigger to Success - Westland Horticulture, an industry leader in the development and production of high specification compost, plant food, lawn treatments, and control products sought to design an easy-to-use, convenient and stylish handheld sprayer for two new sizes of its revolutionary Resolva 24H Ready-to-Use weed control spray.
Westland came up with the concept, already practised for other applications by among others TricorBraun, whereby the trigger sprayer is stored in a cavity within the container itself. The original design was ….. read the full article
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Recharging Body, Mind and Soul - Beverage manufacturers are clamouring for a share in the energy drinks market recently enhanced with the newly created one-shot drinks, which promise super-healthy premiums and are attracting older consumers to the category.
As one-shot drinks are winning over consumers, the ordinary energy drinks are facing the same category fatigue that has blighted the whole segments of the beverage industry such as bottled water and carbonated drinks. The reason is simple: consumers ……. continue reading
Monday, 14 July 2009
One of the Natural Wonders of the World - It is quite frustrating to have nothing else to write about then the amazing number of corruption scandals in Congress and Senate and the president of the Brazilian Republic himself, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, trivialising this criminal behaviour.
Therefore and as it is the dry season in the Amazon region, this and next posts will highlight the beauty of the Amazônia, as long as it still exists.
To see this marvel the tourist has to be very quick as just in less than one year (August 2008 till May 2009) 1.084 km2 has been cut down. Ok, it is getting better as …….continue reading
Sunday, 12 July 2009
Scented Clear Plastic Packaging - Talking about scented packaging , up till now, it’s mainly the cosmetic industry, using scented packages to seduce the consumer to buy its products. Canadian company Transparent Packaging Inc., a pioneer in clear folding carton converting technologies, recently introduced the Clear Scented Box, adding fragrances to packaging graphics, that not only allows consumers to see the product, but also entices the consumer to pick the product up off the shelf to smell it. …… continue reading
Saturday, 11 July 2009
Weight Management by Olfactory Packaging Technology - What people think they taste is solely the result of inhaling odours. The tongue recognises only the five basic taste varieties. All other tastes are the result of odours. ……. It is getting even more interesting. As weight management has become a dominating area of interest for food manufacturers with companies looking for any potential solution to boost satiety amidst growing scrutiny of the use of health claims in markets like the EU, scented packaging may have the possibility to play a role in helping consumers to execute a weight management program….. read the full article
Wednesday, 08 July 2009
Popping A Champagne Bottle - Talking about champagne, most consumers love the “popping” sound, but dislike the complicated struggle to open a champagne bottle, which always seems to go wrong. Therefore Alcan Packaging decided to develop an alternative closure. What, the traditionalists will shout, no cork? Awful, the champagne will taste differently. Champagne is no cider, they will declare.
But backed by famous French vineyard Champagne Duval-Leroy and eyeing the champagne market ……. continue reading
Wednesday, 08 July 2009
A Balance between Function and Attraction - “The function should simply be there while the “wow” factor takes over when you look at and touch the packaging. The packaging should also inspire an element of surprise when opened. This packaging breathes luxury and conveys the right feeling”, says Génebaud Gérandal, a designer at Studio Gérandal, which developed the new packaging for De Jaeger’s snail caviar.
Snail caviar? Yes, snail caviar. Created by French caviar farmer De Jaeger, ….. continue reading
Monday, 06 July 2009
President Lula and the Prisoner’s Mother - As incoherent as a Wild West shooting was the dialogue between the TV reporter and a woman, who was crying on the sidewalk in front of a prison where a rebellion was enkindling.
“You have family there?”
“My son,” a distressed voice tells the reporter, “he ran into some trouble due to bad company, but he is a very good boy.”
The son’s record shows however that it’s not just ….. continue reading
Saturday, 04 July 2009
Corrugated Cardboard? No, call it: Embossed Cardboard - The closest Avenira’s new material comes to corrugated cardboard is that it is manufactured in several layers. It is produced in three or more layers and the middle layer, the one that is usually fluting in corrugated cardboard, consists of small bubbles in a stochastic pattern. That saying, the correct name should be: “embossed multilayer board”.
The material, developed by Finnish Avenira Oy, is a multilayer laminate delivered in sheets. With a weight area between …. continue reading
Saturday, 04 July, 2009
These Poor Old Rheumatic Consumers - According to a report by The Center for Culinary Development (CCD), Baby Boomers, who account for a third of the US population and spend about USD 2 trillion each year, place a significantly higher monetary value on convenient packaging compared to other generations. A large part of the Baby Boomers is confronted with arthritis or hand injuries, which make it impossible for them to easily open screw caps, or for that matter packages in general.
Responding to this increasing international demand for convenient screw caps, Tetra Pak launched the Tetra Brik Edge, the packaging solution for chilled liquid dairy products, while its most important competitor SIG Combibloc introduced the new generation of the combiSmart screw cap …. continue reading
Wednesday, 01 July 2009
“Raccolto di Sardegna” – Microwavable Artichokes Kissed by the Sun - Faced with a hectic life style and their budgets tightening, consumers are more and more seeking convenience and simplicity to backup their home cooking as eating out is a luxury they are skipping for the moment. Although these home-based activities help stretch their budgets, now and again everyone craves a little treat, indulging in small, affordable luxury for a special occasion. As a consequence this leads to a desire for more savoury exotics inspired by the general trend of ethnic dining. Artichokes are such an exotic. …. read more
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