What good is a cover if it doesn’t let you judge what’s inside by it’s design?
The Village Spices, founded by Shri Rukmanni Ammal in 1959, sells the kind of spices that got people to India on slow-moving ships for it, and its packaged to reflect the care, quality and scents of those times too. Solid colours for the newness of today, merged with fine line art and serifed fonts to go back to a time when kitchens were slow, mellow aroma-filled spaces. See the range here.
Kitschy Indian art has always been a likely winner at international ad festivals. Here we see a classic formula. Sex + Ethnic art = Silver
Just hoping a few truckers out there are actually using this, because the problem is real and the packs out there, far too few. Tata Motors really should make this a nation-wide campaign (if it isn’t already) so that every highway-blaring driver out there gets these colourful, uber distracting condoms to rip and place atop a creaky cot under the stars.
Via – CC, of The Sole Sisters & here.
p.s –
Dipper refers to lorry headlights, not the organ.
Nicobar (Good Earth’s hipster arm) has come out with an innovative little piece that is so connected to all they do and feel. A bar of chocolate crafted exclusively for Nicobar by the talented Mandakini (who was recently featured on their blog for her baked goodnesses). The bar’s packaging features their current tropical palette. How beautifully linked and delicious.
Pics: From the Nicobar FB page and site.
Found a tossed Bira cap in the garden, picked it up and pinned it up on someone’s softboard. Only because of the funky monkey on it.
The rest of this new desi craft beer bottle and the colours on it are just as funky monkey. There’s White where the Bira monkey just stares straight ahead, and there’s Blonde where the Bira monkey holds out a peace sign in Freddie Mercury style.
The best part about the packaging is that they have a Growler. That’s a traditional jar used to carry beer from the brewery to your home. Keeps it fresh and bubbly.
I found Bira at Thoms. And you can read more about Bira here.
Doug (dhug means cloud in Marathi) is a hand-crafted bracelet made by women cotton farmers in India to raise money in times of drought. It’s poetic that they’ve chosen the cloud to be a symbol of this hopeful initiative.
The packaging is a simple brown with the thought neatly laid out on the front and the bracelet displayed almost like it’s a floating cloud.
It’s easy-to-make, great to look at and can be neatly parceled off to those who want to help.
Get your Doug here.
Péro, an ethereally lovely handcrafted clothing line and All Things Chocolate, a scrumptiously unique brand of artisan chocolate, come together in these preciously chequered gingham boxes. As collectible as they come, these boxes are. Mostly used to store stash, safety pins and paper clips. Yes, I asked around.
Find All Things here, and Péro here.
We found Hokey Pokey in a wine store. So the TG is obviously us. Here’s to Chardonnay and mango ice cream.
The packaging is simple, fun, plastic, not slippery when frosty and a sweet message outside that asks us to ‘please reuse the tub for something else, like fruits’.
Images from here and one clicked by me.
Find Hokey Pokey online here.
If you blindly love stationery, place an order for Origin One’s surprise box of goodies that’s hand picked from their own collection of design-drooled ware.
Apart from the packaging that comes tied in shoe-lace inspired string and a box that’s covered with enough to keep you from opening it, what I like is the thought. A surprise box you pay for. Fair. Fun.
Order yours here.
Images: Origin One’s insta feed.
Olie is known for its island-inspired designs, natural fabrics and simplistic design sensibilities. So when I found that they had an entire section dedicated just to boxes, I was thrilled. Thrilled to note that they’re using left over fabric to make gifting and storing a pleasure.
These boxes – available in rectangles, hexagonals, rounds and squares – are wrapped neatly in fabric and finished fine.
Ideal for storing your preciouses or gifting treasures to your preciouses.
Find Olie ware here.
Intricately designed herb-and-plant illustrations grace the packages of Kama Ayurveda.
There’s a hint of old-world English charm and there’s a bouquet of aromatherapy-inspired paintings.
Paintings that seem to have been done with a fine, fine brush and a magnifying glass.
What I liked most was that the scent of the product and the visuals on the package appealed equally to the nose and the eye. Kama also seems to have taken care to research the herbs for each product, stylise it, add magic to it and then develop it into memorable packs that would inspire you to cut it up and use it as bookmarks.
Find Kama here.
In the 80s, apart from Camco, rat sweets were the next big thing.
Jeera candy was found in a variety of packages – from windmills to faces and slow cars.
This morning, however, a maid brought this for my friend’s daughter. And it was so kitsch that I kept it and was quite sure it needed to be featured on PII.
This bird is light-weight, uses bad plastic and has claws for a stopper. It holds around 100 jeera candy sweets, which are traditionally called rat sweets. I assume rat kaka looks like this (sans the colours, of course). The eye is a sticker that is scarily lifelike.
Makes for a perfect Halloween treat.
Pics taken on an iPhone. Feel free to use it.
Packed In India 