Design
#office #packaging #rubber bands
Rubber Bands with a Bow: The Art of Japanese Packaging Simplified
Japanese design is often focused on adding engaging design to unexpected places, subtly nudging the audience to look twice at everyday objects from erasers to lunch boxes. Designer Yu Aso has placed this idea into one of the most common packaging elements—rubber bands.
Aso has reimagined rubber bands with a mizuhiki twist, a Japanese art form using cords tied with decorative knots. The most common of these is the shoelace knot, which he has effortlessly worked into a rubber band that is appropriately named the mizuhikiband. The band was was originally created as part of the 2013 Kokuyo Design Awards with the theme of “happy x design,” but has since gone through two years of revisions to refine the design and make the product more foreigner-friendly.
It was also important to Aso that the band have a sense of repetition in its design, encouraging users to use the product over and over again to secure a variety of gifts.
Mizuhikibands will be available in four different colors and packaged in groups of 7 beginning in early October. (via Spoon & Tamago)
Update: Mizuhikibands are now available in the U.S. through the Spoon & Tamago Shop.
#office #packaging #rubber bands
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