Best Graphics in Food Packaging

[maggiethecat]

As a little girl, I thought the can of Lyle's Golden Syrup was as awe-inspiring as an illuminated manuscript. As a young matron those boxes of Godivas glittered like golden reliquaries. I check out the can of Clabber Girl every time I bake. There are boxes, bags and cans that I can admire as an aesthete as much as I love their contents.

My daughter brought us, at Christmas, a jar of sinus-clearing mustard from the legendary Philippe's in LA -- soi disant site of the birth of the French Dip sandwich. She said: "I didn't wrap it, because the bag is part of the present." How well she knows me. (The bag got rumpled in her luggage.)

Isn't that vernacular Art Moderne at its finest?

I'd love to hear about what food packaging is in your food product Louvre.

[Natho]

I really love the Effen Vodka bottles. The glass comes in about 1 mm at the label and the label itself is a thick rubber sleeve. The graphic design is a great example of "less is more". The black cherry (black label) is particularly striking to me.

[grayelf]

I'm a sucker for iconic labels -- you know, the ones that have been the same as long as you can remember. I'm thinking Keen's Dry Mustard, Marmite, Magic Baking Powder -- the packaging itself may modernize but those logos remain.

PS tangent: Has anyone tried the new Marmite with Guinness? My SE got it for Christmas and I'm a little afraid...

[Pierogi]

Great topic Maggie !

The Coleman's dry mustard can.

The label on Crystal hot sauce.

The Szged paprika can.

The Oscar Meyer logo, even though I don't actually consume any of their products but bacon.

The Pom pomegranite juice bottles.

The Tanquery 10 gin bottles. So very sexy. (the gin ain't bad either !)

And my personal favorite.......very in tune with your homage a Moderne (same birthplace too).....*drumroll*.......the See's candy boxes and bags. And the stores, too. They're sort of packaging as well. Love the picture of Mary See, the black and white theme and the very very clean streamlined design.

[tamiam]

Any other non-Asians ever go into an Asian supermarket and select unidentifiable foods just because the cartoon characters and brightly colored packages are totally cool? I love Japanese graphic package design most of all.

[tamiam]

Any other non-Asians ever go into an Asian supermarket and select unidentifiable foods just because the cartoon characters and brightly colored packages are totally cool? I love Japanese graphic package design most of all.

[Natho]

Well, I buy smallgoods and cheese if I have never heard of it, or can't pronounce it, but I have so far refrained from buying brightly colored asian packets of stuff. I'm always suspicious it will contain dried prawns.

[moosnsqrl]

I like Rancho Gordo's labels and visitors to my home who see them always comment on them.

And I have a certain, inexplicable fondness for La Vache qui Rit as well (the graphics, not the product).

[feedmec00kies]

Maggiethecat, that's an awesome bag. If you were in my boyfriend's family, you'd then save that bag and wrap someone's gift with it next year... and the next year... (it's a cute tradition, even though others might find it nutty to save interesting wrapping paper/packaging and reuse it).

For whatever reason I'm drawing a blank right now on specific food packaging graphics that I've really liked. I'm too distracted by the bag... the style is really up my alley.

Any other non-Asians ever go into an Asian supermarket and select unidentifiable foods just because the cartoon characters and brightly colored packages are totally cool?  I love Japanese graphic package design most of all.

←

Well I don't quite qualify as non-Asian, since my mom's Asian. But I can't read more than a few scattered words in Chinese, so I'm pretty much in the same boat. But yeah, I find that Japanese products - not just the ones with cute cartoon characters - tend to have the best graphic design. Then again, theirs is a culture with a whole industry built around the replication of food into non-edible but realistic forms. I kind of just take it for granted that they care a lot about presentation.

Edited January 9, 2008 by feedmec00kies (log)

[Megan Blocker]

Colman's, totally. You can see the tin here.

For those who've never seen it, here's a look at the Lyle's tin as well.

I have to nominate the classic Coca-Cola labels and curvy bottles.

[Priscilla]

A subject of life-long interest.

Colman's tin is such perfection I have been unable to resist using the small ones to make beeswax votives for gifts in past years. Usually I keep the large size in stock, which I adore and worship beyond all reason because it is the perfectly proportioned blowup of the little one.

And MtheC the baking powder whose label I pay promiscuous attention to is Rumford. Sometimes I buy the cute little pillbox size at the health food store, but more often the still-not-giant one at Trader Joe's. I have been appreciating up close and personal-like Clabber Girl cornstarch however, supplied now in a recloseable canister with considerable graphic appeal.

[Big Bunny]

Native American images can be great - Argo starch, Calumet baking powder.

BB

[maggiethecat]

For a glimpse of classic Japanese food packaging at its most beautiful, check out Rona's Christmas in Japan thread. It's as about as far removed from my Philippe's bag as Audrey Hepburn to Tia Tequila, and brought back memories of the food gifts my daughter brought us from her trip to Japan. I didn't open them for a month -- I gazed --and saved every scrap of the wrapping paper.