Product Packaging
I was doing a bit of cleaning up of my room when I unearthed something which I have stashed away for ages… the original product packaging for my very first apple purchase, the iPod.
It was a third generation 20 GB iPod and according to engadget, this series of iPod is ’educated and worldly‘, completely void of mechanical buttons which have plagued its ancesters.
You may wonder why I would be keeping the packaging after so long. I must admit that I am very much guilty of hoarding product packagings. I tend to keep most of the packagings for gadgets that I have bought. There are definitely times when you will need to pack the gadget back to its original box, personally I found myself in these situations when I needed to sell the gadgets when I bought a new replacement and for times when I needed to send the faulty gadget back for a replacement.
A huge portion of the packaging were kept for these pragmatic reasons and the rest, purely for aesthetic reasons. In the case of this iPod, it is definitely the latter and I can hardly be blamed (someone help explain this to my mom). For the benefits of those who has yet to own an Apple product, the packagings are simply gorgeous, equally as detailed and finely-crafted as the product themselves.
To me, it is amazing how much effort and design are put into the packaging. As compared to the other brands, Apple tend to keep their packaging clean and simple, even the instruction manuals that come along with the product are all very concise and easy to read. The approach to the design is clearly present in every aspect of the products, even right down to the packaging.
Apart from the iPod, I still have the original packaging of my iMac. I just cannot bear to discard them away. Do you stash a hoard of aesthetically-pleasing packaging somewhere in the house too?
David Murphey
Apple products all look great there is no doubt about it. Apple stores are very aesthetically pleasing.
It is also the packaging that sells the product. Not surprising that people tend to keep the packaging. Indeed, a well designed box is a waste if it is binned. I too keep nicely designed product packaging.