A top collection

Just came across a wonderful Flickr collection of bottle caps.

Yeah yeah I know that sounds dull. But it's not. Promise!

Click here to go take a look.

Fresh thinking from Japan

Now this is a clever idea. Food packaging labels that change colour as the expiry date approaches.

Once the product has passed its 'use by' the label becomes unreadable.

They were developed by Tokyo design group To-Genkyo.

I imagine this idea could be put to other time sensitive uses too.

For instance the price of a special offer could become unreadable by the time the offer expires.

Customers seeing the changing colour of a label may also be tempted to purchase quicker as the label gives a purchase a sense of urgency.

Be interesting to see if this form of labelling is taken up outside of Japan. Only time will tell I guess.

Sweet as

How cute are these pharmaceutical pocket packs.

I especially love the simple everyday language used for the product names.

The packaging materials are pretty great too, as they're completely compostable.

So they won't end up giving the environment a headache.

Here's a look at the full range. Click the pic to enlarge.

The epitome of style

How beautiful is this packaging? I think it's absolutely stunning. These two are from a fabulous Flickr set of mid 20th century illustrative packaging, advertising and more. I recommend you click here to go take a look - you're sure to be inspired.

The taste of summer

If there's one thing the folks at Coca Cola know how to do it's play around with their branding elements.

Of course each and every Coke can carries plenty of copyright info. But the people who market the brand are given licence to have fun with it.

This clever new can design from the US is a great case in point.

It captures one of the great summer experiences and puts Coke right at the heart of it.

And it does it with a logo. Actually 3 logos to be precise. Each of them butted up against each other.

You'd hardly ever see other big brands doing this.

Why?

Because so called brand custodians would be too busy flicking through their brand manuals and style guides to check the clearance tolerances around their logo.

So a huge Fonzie thumbs up from me to the folks from Coca Cola for allowing their creative people to be creative.