Given the years and millions companies spend on packaging, surprisingly little attention has been paid to this critical part of every pack design.Japanese companies get it. They've been buying custom barcodes since 2005 from Design Barcode that charges $1500 and up for design, $200 a year for licensing. A pittance compared to redesigning a logo. And with so many stores going self-cashier, more and more eyeballs are searching them out. Why not build in some amusement...and branding?
So I'm walking through Soho last evening and am startled to see (and it takes a lot to startle someone in Soho) a living room seating area laid out on the sidewalk: chairs, sofa, sidetables. As I get closer, I see the stuff is made out of cardboard. Before I can wrangle my camera out of my bag, then my reading glasses so I can see its viewscreen (age sucks), the furniture is gone, a guy has folded it up with few flicks of his wrist and toted it inside what has to be the world's tiniest furniture store in the world: I've seen newsstands bigger. But who needs more room? His inventory folds flat and stores neatly on shelves. He's the proprietor of a new store called Cardboard Design (Broadway between Spring and Prince) where you can furnish your entire house using recycled cardboard. Including the playroom. The woman on the right inquired about the rocket. $75, he said, folding it up small as a tray table, and ignoring her interest, closed up shop for the night.
When I got home, I googled it and found this mesmerizing demo:
