Geometric package designs for snacks are coming from all directions. Doritos has had a conceptual design overhaul, making a play on its famous triangular snack shape.
Impact extrusion is used to create this new Coke can redesign. Looks cool, I just hope it feels cool and can match the structural integrity of the current can.
Going back to school means a lot of people buying a whole lot of new things. Teachers, students, parents; we are all consumers. With so many designs keeping the environment in mind during planning and manufacture, it would be nice to see a few students sporting green with their back to school gear. Here are a few products to get you started.
Newton running shoes are more than just green. The shoes laces, webbing, insole top and outer sole rubber are made of recycled materials. And there is more; the package is made of the same post-consumer paper waste as egg cartons. And to get greener than green, the shoe is stuffed with a pair of new socks and a reusable bag to avoid useless tissue paper that would normally get tossed after opening.
Every new school year sees last year’s trends moved aside for the hottest new items. Well, try going green with this 100% recycled material backpack. The cost of the backpack even includes a donation to American Rainforests, so chances are you will be helping to add a tree or two for your money well spent.
Radiohead, noted to be one of the greenest bands out there has extended its line of apparel to raincoats. The nice thing about their designer coat (other than it is made for Radiohead) is that it took 15 recycled PETG bottles to create it. Look cool, feel cool and be cool with this post-consumer jacket this fall.
And speaking of rainy fall weather, if campus life has you traveling by foot from class to class, be sure to pack an umbrella. This umbrella has a canopy made of 100% recycled PETG bottles with a frame made of 70% recycled steel, aluminum and ABS plastics.
Pack up your pencils, pens and markers into this recycled supply pouch and feel good knowing that the world has one less tire in its landfills. And while you’re at it, stuff in the ruler made of, “read it together class: three plastic cups.”
Who goes to school without a notebook. If you are going to have to take notes, you might as well write onto something worth writing on. This recycled material notebook will have you daydreaming and doodling in no time, thanks to recycled juice cartons and plastic boxes.
Highlighters are a must for most note-takers and young scholars. Why not go green when you go yellow by using these Zebra-Eco highlighters made from 74% post-consumer waste. Go ahead, stuff it in that pouch you just read about.
Packing your lunch is a must for some students, by choice or necessity. Do it in style with this second-life juice pouch bag. This ECOutlet bag is made from materials once known as trash, but now known as green.
I would have to say the biggest complaint about going green, is all the green you spend in doing so. Although it can be costly to buy environmentally responsible products, sometimes I think it is worth it to do so, as with this computer. With an 80% smaller size, using 70% less energy and 75% less printed paperwork to go with it, this Dell desktop computer is definitely getting greener. You can even recycle 95% of the product after it becomes obsolete.
Travel friendly design has been extended to man’s best friend, thanks to the Travel-tainer. Conveniently compact and smart for travel, this container has pop-off water and food dishes with an air-tight container for dry pet food. I guess it could work with cereal and milk too, if you prefer.
With summer coming quickly to an end, packed lunches are just around the corner. So for those of us working class who pack year round and kids looking forward to a new school year of brown bagging it, take a look at a few well-designed ways to take your food with you on the go.
For those of you who are not familiar with bento boxes, it’s about time you have a look at what it’s all about. Here is a three tier bento box set with a lid and fastener included as well. Definitely a cool way to sit down to a lunch.
This lunchbox gets the kids familiar with the Apple brand at an early age. Staying on brand includes the familiar Apple logo, mirrored steel casing and overall plain and simple design. Is there anything that Apple hasn’t branded?
Food For Thought has devised a way to keep fruit in the lunchboxes of young ones. This durable design protects fruit from bruising with its hard shell structure, and it’s marketed to keep those not-so-cool-to-eat fruits covered and out of view from other school children.
Maybe eating lunch is more of a show to you. What better way to display your lunch and have an impromptu lunch demo than to use this cooler/ table/ bag combo? You better have a full hour lunchtime if you plan on packing your lunch in this bag for all to see.
This Jazz speaker lunch box lets you sound just as good as you eat. Uniquely designed to not only store your food, but provide enough speaker power for listening as you lunch. And don’t worry, the speakers are water resistant.
Just like a model airplane, all of the parts and pieces of this snap and dine set come in a single inject mold unit for you to disassemble. The novelty of this dining set might have you asking your lunch lady to serve you on your own tray.
You can never go wrong with an oilcloth lunch bag. Designed to take spills, this fabric is great for soup and salad dressing containers that might tip over on your commute (and the link above goes to a site that provides a pattern to use with your favorite print).
This always worked for me as a young one; the brown bag. Neatly folded and with my name written in big black letters, a packed lunch never tasted better. Hey, an old-school brown bag lunch is always in style!
Here is a creative and smart way to feast on your take-out pizza. This new design for the traditional pizza box tears apart into four square paper plates and then folds over to store whatever pizza may be leftover. It seems like the perfect way to save on plates and fit a pizza box in the fridge when you’re done eating!
This inverter for your car is pretty clever. Sized to fit perfectly into your cup holder (because it is a cup shape, as you can see), you can juice up any 2 electronic devices and have a USB hub to boot as well. Even the logo is entertaining, mimicking the likes of a few famous coffee brands. The design makes such a great attempt at realism, it may get thrown out with some take-out if you are not careful.
How refreshing are these images? The sliced fruit design of these Kleenex brand tissue boxes are a step up from the average rectangular design. I haven’t seen them on the shelf at my local Target yet, but I bet they look just as cool in person. The real question is, are they unique enough to have people buying six at a time to make a complete slice?
Here is a unique way to showcase your love of music; a Pratesi Guitar Backpack. I thought this was a pretty clever approach to storing something — creating a case that looks like a favorite object. The design also features a built in mini speaker with an input for your MP3 player.
These sliced bread notebooks are the next best thing since sliced bread. Maybe not, but they sure do look cool. Themed as slices of bread, this set of notebooks is packaged to look as if you were picking up an entire loaf.
There is no way that you can call this a pizza box. This Norwegian design is void of any side flaps and is, in fact, not what we would recognize as a pizza box. Does it store a frozen pizza? Is it used to carry your pizza to your home around the corner? Does it have spikes in the cardboard to pierce the pizza and keep it from sliding? The clamshell design raises a lot of questions about how it functions; I am sure it explains that right on the box, but I can not read Norwegian. I think it is great to see designs like this that do not simply follow the conventional norm of how we store and transport items. It’s such a simple, creative approach to the problem of how a cross-cultural food is stored. Hmmm, pizza sounds so good right about now!
