“A polite alternative to the 10-foot pole. Such is the premise behind start-up company, Reality Bling’s, Ms. Taken – a new product based on an age-old concept for single women, offering them a way to protect themselves against unwanted suitors in social situations. Reality Bling engaged Hornall Anderson to develop the strategy, naming, identity and packaging for Ms. Taken’s “diamond ring” – inconspicuously packaged in the hidden compartment of a keychain fob, which serves as a delivery device for easy access when needed. We also designed an elegant, upscale ring box for additional storage that also functions as a POS display.

As an added touch of humor, we developed a series of tongue in cheek “Playaz” trading cards featuring 20 different illustrated characters representing the typical unsavory personalities that single women attempt to avoid. The result is a system of guideposts that packages and messages this product in a way that adds value, connects emotionally, and ultimately builds a community of single divas. It’s a great example of how, through strategic brainstorms, innovative thinking and inspired design, we helped bring this small start-up company’s big ideas into fruition.”

“We developed a concept basically via the hint of an idea meant to target women in their 20s and 30s with a sense of humor. The project included packaging an idea and creating a brand around it to which single women could really relate.”

– Larry Anderson, Creative Director of Hornall Anderson

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“To reinforce its credibility as a leader in the craft beer industry, Redhook Brewery approached Hornall Anderson to spearhead the design of its new Limited Edition 22 oz. series. We asked ourselves, “What would speak premium without being overly pretentious?” Our solution was an approach that reflects both a handcrafted and premium look & feel.

To emphasize the limited nature of this Tripel Belgian release, each bottle was spray frosted, accompanied by a gold screen-printed caption reading “Limited Release” repeated across the bottle. Finishing it off, we created a slimmer than usual label for more bottle visibility and added the brewmaster’s signature to give it that extra hit of authenticity. Collectively, this small batch limited run series accomplishes what Redhook was hoping to achieve – to provide beer that craft beer drinkers love and respect. Cheers!”

Designed by Hornall Anderson Design.

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This series is supported by Times Reader 2.0. Learn more about The New York Times’ latest innovation in newspaper delivery here.

We’re big fans of eBooks. You can read them on multiple computers or devices, add annotations, and search for specific words and phrases. Plus, an eBook doesn’t take up tons of room like physical books, which is great for the road warrior.

In the last few years, publishers have finally started to embrace digital publishing and now lots of books on lots of different topics are available for various eBook platforms. If you’re into social media (and who isn’t?) check out these ten can’t-miss eBooks!

1. Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich

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Most people are familiar with the sanitized history of Facebook: Harvard kid starts a web site in his dorm room, ends up changing the world. Although that’s part of the truth, and is certainly compelling in its own right, Mezrich’s take on Facebook’s founding and its behind-the-scenes legal battles is like something out of Hollywood. In fact, Accidental Billionaires is the basis for the film, The Social Network, which is due to arrive in theaters in October 2010. If you use Facebook and are curious about its history‚ or if you just love a good, gripping soap opera ‚ don’t miss this book!

Format: Kindle, Nook, others

2. The Art of Community by Jono Bacon

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Bacon is the Community Manager for Ubuntu, one of the largest open source software projects on the planet. In this book he talks about the ins and outs of building, cultivating and managing a community from the ground up. This is a must-read for anyone interested in community development. In a truly community-friendly effort, you can download the entire book for free and share and modify it under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Non-Commercial license.

Format: Free PDF, Kindle, Nook, others

3. The World According to Twitter by David Pogue

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New York Times columnist David Pogue got into Twitter in late 2008 and decided to use the service as the basis for this book. Every day, Pogue asked his followers questions and compiled the best, most interesting and funniest responses. This is a great example of just how much can be shared in 140 characters.

Format: Kindle, others

4. Content by Cory Doctorow

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Cory Doctorow, one of the voices behind the uber-blog Boing-Boing, is well-known for his opinions on technology, DRM and the future of content. Content is a collection of some of his best work and is an insightful read. Truly a man that practices what he preaches, the book is available for free in multiple formats.

Format: Free download

5. Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk

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Gary Vaynerchuk is one of those people that absolutely bursts with energy. Whether he’s talking about wine, talking about marketing or just talking about people, Gary is passionate. Gary has built his business on the back of that passion and is a shining example of what can be accomplished when you push yourself and dedicate your life to what you love.

Format: Kindle, others

6. Free by Chris Anderson

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The author of The Long Tail released his follow-up earlier this year, called Free. In it, Anderson argues that the best price is often no price, instead offering freemium models or incentives and services to make money, rather than charging for the “product” itself. It’s an interesting idea, and even if you don’t buy all of Anderson’s assertions, it is still worth a read. Ironically, Free is no longer available for free.

Format: Kindle, others

7. The New Community Rules by Tamar Weinberg

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Mashable’s own Tamar Weinberg wrote this fantastic book about how to use, understand and leverage social media to market your product, your service or yourself. By focusing on the importance of community and joining the conversation, Tamar does a great job getting to the heart of why social media is so interesting and game-changing.

Format: Kindle, others

8. Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki

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Guy Kawasaki is a legend. At Apple, he helped spread the word about the Macintosh and keep the community engaged (even when the community and the company were fading), almost single-handedly creating the job category of “brand evangelist” and as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, he’s seen what works and what doesn’t. In his latest book, Guy does what Guy does best: he lays out the facts and ideas that seem like common sense (until you realize how often they are ignored) about building community and the power of networking.

Format: Kindle, others

9. Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

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Chris Brogan is one of those guys who really walks the walk. He doesn’t just talk about how to build influence and the power of the conversation, he’s always part of the conversation. No matter how successful he gets, Chris is still Chris, and he’s still there to talk and listen. His book on building reputation and earning trust on the web is genuine, just like he is.

Format: Kindle, others

10. What Matters Now by Seth Godin and others

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Seth Godin’s latest book, which features essays by himself and a host of other brilliant minds is available for free. In What Matters Now, each essayist focuses on something that matters to them. Think of this as your New Year’s Resolution in an eBook.

Format: Free download

This series is supported by Times Reader 2.0. Learn more about The New York Times’ latest innovation in newspaper delivery here.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, tiridifilm, alexsl

Tags: books, ebooks, Kindle, List, Lists, nook, social media, times reader series

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The first real customer experience we have when we get a new product is the package. Of course you might say that with the internet we can buy online and see the product before buying it, I know I get it, but the package design is a very inportant part of the customer experience. The unboxing process is exciting, Apple has shown us that it really matters, and whe have been seeing more and more companies following that wagon.

In this post I decided to look for really cool package designs, but not randomly or super famous pacakges such as the awesome Apple boxes. Therefore, I will list only dark package designs. Some could be described as product designs, such as the "Salt&Pepper Cell", but they are so cool that deserved a spot in the list.

Steve Jobs has always been fascinated by packaging, believing the unboxing routine to be a crucial part of the customer experience. All of Jobs’s products have been carefully packaged going back to the original Mac in 1984. Jobs believes unpacking a product is a great way to introduce unfamiliar technology to the consumer — they explore the components as they unbox them. – Cultofmac.com

Mehmet Gozetlik’s Portfolio

I’m not a battery!

Created by Antrepo Design Industry as “Salt&Pepper Cell” and it is like a D size battery also the dimensions too. Material used is stainless steel and glass, the power indicators on the sides correlate to the amount of spices left in the shakers, before refill time. The color options are Red&Turquoise or Black&white.

Studio43′s Portfolio

Aaron Willard

Kon•verse: Logo and packaging design for a California wine company. The packaging uses a minimalist design approach to capture the essence of the brand.

j Kaczmarek’s Portfolio

Smay Design

ACDC Backtracks Box Set

Packlab

Pop-Up Popcorn

“In 2008 Anni Nykänen [of Packlab] won four awards for her Popcorn concept. Three of them European student design awards at the IOP: Student Starpack Awards. The Gold, Best in Show Award, Marks & Spencers / Korsnas Frovi Sponsored Award as she helped PACKLAB. Lahti Institute of Design to win the Eric Dickens Award for the second time in 2008. Months later her packaging picked up a 2008 Honorable Mention at the Worldstar Student / Packaging Design Competition (International) Award.”

Studio Kluif

A humourous take on copy paper sold by international European retailer, HEMA.

DHNN (design has no name)’s Portfolio

Undoboy’s Portfolio

Furry Utopia – create a new brand called furry utopia selling conceptual design merchandise

Greig Anderson’s Portfolio

Cassette Badge Sets

Being a child of the eighties I have fond memories of cassettes and I have created these limited edition badge sets as a reminder of this past format. There is currently 12 different cassette types by some of the mainstream tape manufacturers that I remember having in my childhood. Each set consists of 6, 25mm button badges which are created as circular crops of the actual cassette artwork. These are attached to a printed cassette back board and sealed in a classic cassette box with a custom inlay card giving a brief history of the cassette format…

Good Creative’s Portfolio

Didac Catalán’s Portfolio

Branden Tintiangco

“Introducing 12 new bottles designed by up-and-coming artists from New York to Hawaii, the 1800 Tequila Essential Artists series celebrates a dynamic range of original artwork on a unique and unexpected medium – bottles of 100% Agave Silver Tequila! Showcasing eleven designs gathered from over 15,000 online submissions, selected by 1800 Tequila, and one special edition “celebrity artist” bottle, this new line is a vibrant example of the undiscovered, yet soon-to-be-recognized talent residing across the country.”

jkr

kr were challenged to produce an eye-catching can which evokes positive associations to the iconic brand – simply, to make a good pack great.The team elected to do this via a full-blooded use of the traditional harp emblem. This approach has resulted in a single-minded design which better acts as a “badge in the hand”

Nuria Herrero’s Portfolio

Isabela Serta

The idea of this project is to promote a more healthy food consumption and, concurrently, to also promote sustainable local agriculture, which involves methods that do not harm the environment, respect workers and animals, provide fair wages to farmers and support farming communities…”

Nanospore’s Portfolio

HOMOGENY is collaboration between Nanospore and Royal Elastics – set for a Fall ’08 release. it features our little nameless friend, which serves as a symbol of the similarity in structure between organs or parts, possibly of dissimilar function, that are related by common descent. Light and dark. Color and monochrome. Land and sea. Love and hatred. Joy and pain.

FIRMA’s Portfolio

We are involved in all stages of a brand development and there is one that we call PACKMAN. PACKMAN means packaging that connects our clients with their customers and sets them apart from their competitors.

Amelia Roberts’s Portfolio

Michael McDevitt’s Portfolio

Client: Mission Product Holding, Inc.

Background: To create a range of packaging that demonstrates a high level of performance and social responsibility while remaining linked to the skin care category.

Kristeen Wegner’s Portfolio

Thorbjorn Ankerstjerne’s Portfolio

A selection of designs for carrier bags for the danish pharmacy chain Apotek. I worked on this project during my placement at Kontrapunkt, Copenhagen.

Miguel Ramirez’s Portfolio

Markus Schaefer’s Portfolio

Transformer Studio’s Portfolio

Isse is a luxury mobile phone brand, producing exclusive jewell phones. Precious metals and gems are used in phone decoration as well as more than sixty techonological processes are applied.

Jeremy Mlodik’s Portfolio

Nuria Herrero’s Portfolio

Michael Freimuth

Michael Freimuth continues his amazing work for Azita’s, this time for their limited edition dry rubs…

David Garcia’s Portfolio

Evan Geltosky’s Portfolio

Sources

• Behance – Package Design
• LovelyPackage

About the author

My name is Fabio Sasso, I’m a graphic/web designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I’m the founder of Abduzeedo. I hope we can share lots of information, tips, and ideas through Abduzeedo. Also you can follow me on Twitter or my personal site at http://fabiosasso.com.

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The master of light effects, Chuck Anderson from Nopattern.com has updated his portfolio with some incredible new work. The clients are very cool too, including Microsoft with beautiful artworks for Windows 7 and the package itself. Also there’s the Google Chrome theme and the fantastic work for the Chicago Marathon.

I updated NoPattern today with the biggest projects I’ve ever done. New work for Windows 7, the Chicago Marathon, and Google Chrome are up, along with a few other new ones. www.nopattern.com

Chuck Anderson is a reference for us and we highly recommend that you visit his website and take a look at his portfolio. It’s definitely worth checking it out. Also follow Chuch Anderson on Twitter at @nopattern.

Microsoft Windows 7

Chicago Marathon

Decibel Magazine

Google Chrome

Ernie Ball

Solace Magazine

Other Projects

About the author

My name is Fabio Sasso, I’m a graphic/web designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I’m the founder of Abduzeedo. I hope we can share lots of information, tips, and ideas through Abduzeedo. Also you can follow me on Twitter or my personal site at http://fabiosasso.com.

Sponsored Links:

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