This article is dedicated to everyone who love living out of a suitcase always looking for new horizons to discover. Yet the daily proposal is a standstill trip, that you can make while comfortably sitting at your desk. In fact, we will talk about map-inspired packaging design you will fall in love with.
This kind of diagrammatic representation might be used and reinterpreted in a highly creative way to create imaginative and unexpected graphic designs. While researching, we have found packagings able to make you travel with your mind giving you exciting user experience. Some of the illustrations use genial mental associations, which are worth closer study. This kind of connections is indeed a useful starting point for your creative inspiration.
For the occasion, we have chosen to analyze products belonging to different industries in order to offer a bunch of useful ideas. It wasn’t an easy feat, but we did it. So, get ready, our trip starts here.
The first project that we will analyze involves the gift box that was created for the 2014 International Ambassadors Seminar held in Barcelona.
The package has been designed by the pastry chef Josep Ma Ribé in collaboration with Callebaut team ambassadors. They have decided to create a curated selection of dragées, representing the landscapes that define Barcelona: sea, mountain, city, and countryside.
Starting from this ground idea, they have designed their packagings. 4 boxes with different sizes have been used to pack the dragées. Their proportions represent the topographical percentages of the four landscapes. The sceneries also inspired their graphic design. If combined, the packagings come perfectly together like a square.
Another intriguing packaging project is branded King’s Choice’s Delectable Cheese Mystery Box. It is composed of 4 triangular boxes which contain a selection of exclusive cheese.
The packagings aim to provide a gourmet experience to cheese lovers by engaging them in a nice challenge. Nobody knows which product they are gonna eat until they open the boxes. The only clue available is right outside of them, for all to see. Indeed, by putting the packagings together, a map of Europe will suddenly appear.
The slice of the map shown on each box is not random. Each triangle of cheese originates from the region of Europe displayed, but only by opening the packaging you might know exactly where. All the information related to the type of cheese, to its history and geographical origin, are printed on the paperboard labeling placed under the product. This labeling might also be used to rest the cheese on the table.
This interactive map-inspired packaging design ensures a unique user experience.
My World Wines project has simple but impactful claims. It was created by the Norwegian studio OlssønBarbieri and includes 3 bag-in-boxes. The packages contain wines produced in Australia and New Zealand. The designers decided to print on the boxes the map of the two nations including some illustrations showing their uniquenesses. A great way to distinguish the product and make it pop off the shelf.
Another interesting adventure is hidden behind Marou chocolate bar packaging.
The product is wrapped into a package inspired by pirate treasure maps, which would take you on a mysterious and timeless trip. Naturally, as in any self-respecting treasure map, the X marks the secret hiding place of a precious good. Do you guess what it is? I will let you know it right away.
The X is placed upon Tan Phu Dong island, which is the origin of some of the most precious cacao on the planet. The same cacao used to produce Marou chocolate bars. To design the map, the graphic designers use inspiration from the old topographical maps of the area reinterpreting them in a classic pirate style. An intriguing and funny way to give the product a secretive and enigmatic look, worthy of a real mystery to reveal. Indeed, unwrapping the map-inspired packaging feels like uncovering the hidden treasure marked by the X. Simply amazing!
If the analyzed projects have caught your attention, let’s have a look at some other map-inspired packaging design collected in our gallery. Enjoy the vision.
