Go naked, save the planet.

Here's an interesting math problem. How much of an impact does your product's packing have on the environment, from the raw materials through to recycling or disposal? Jesus Diaz over at Gizmodo.com did the numbers for one product line for Coca Cola and came up with this:

It doesn't only look beautiful, and it would make Jon Ive and Steve Jobs wet, but this naked Coca-Cola can would help save energy while reducing air and water pollution. Would it really make a difference? Let's do some math:

Assume the consumption only increases through time, but let's take the daily 2007 numbers from Global INForM Cases Sales database: The total number of Coca-Cola cans sold per worldwide is 67,873,309. Diet Coke and Coke Zero sold 35,387,241, while My Coke sold 103,260,550. Yes, that's all per day.

So using only classic Coca-Cola's daily sales figures, that means 24,773,757,785 are sold every year. Twenty-four billion cans. That is indeed a lot of paint and paint removal products. Because this doesn't only affect the production. It also affects the recycling process, eliminating one step:

The naked can help to reduce air and water pollution occurred in its coloring process. It also reduces energy and effort to separate toxic color paint from aluminum in recycling process. Huge amount of energy and paint required to manufacture colored cans will be saved. Instead of toxic paint, manufacturers process aluminum with a pressing machine that indicates brand identity on surface.

Sounds good to me, and it even looks better if you take into account all kinds of Coke. That brings up the number to 75,380,201,500 cans. I don't know how much paint that represents, but I'm guessing quite a few thousand tons. [7760 via Likecool, Sales info from Let's Get Together]

Send an email to Jesus Diaz, the author of this post, at jesus@gizmodo.com.

Barcode = art

Barcodes are what makes the world go round. If it weren't for them society as a whole would probably collapse into anarchy.

And they can be pretty fun to play with too...

Where the world buys giveaway merch.

62,000 stalls
320,000 different commodities on sale
More than 1,500 categories
Within 34 industries

Artificial flowers, cuddly toys, fashion jewellery, hair accessories, jewellery fittings, arts and crafts items, photograph frames, crystal, and buckets and spades in lurid reds and yellows, bags, wallets, hardware, kitchenware, bikes, watches clocks, locks, scooters and home appliances, zips, buttons, packaging materials, crazy-eyed leprechauns, Tom and Jerry, the Pink Panther and Yosemite Sam, funny big hands, comical Viking hats, whistles, rattles, giant bananas, World Cup South Africa 2010 mascots, plastic fruit, hair ornaments.

The list is endless. And so is the mall that sells it. Great article about the mall that sells everything.

I'm just holding it for a friend.

And I didn't inhale. Ever. At any time.

To promote the upcoming season of Weeds the drama/comedy that features all kinds of drug dealing hijinks and lowjinks, the promotional company went and built a blunt of Cheech & Chong proportions.

Using hemp, the ugly sibling of marijuana, the promoters sent out packages that probably raised a few eyes in the mailroom. Once unwrapped, voila, the payoff, some promo print for Weeds and some hemp to put in your office.

Odds are a few packages didn't make it to their intended recipient and a few people spent an evening taking self-portraits and coughing their lungs out...

there's packaging, and then there's packaging

And this my friend, is Packaging.

Tasty, tasty design to hold the contents in.

"What if?" package design

What if marijuana were legal? What if you could pick up a dozen joints, pre-rolled, at the corner store. It might happen, recent trending is showing an increased acceptance of marijuana and projections for tax revenues show it paying off a whole lot of deficits.

But more importantly, how would it be packaged?

That's the question print magazine asked in their article "Building a Better Baggie"

When is your brand not your brand?

Problem: you are a company that sells coffee all over the planet. In fact, you have so many locations that people make fun of the sheer number of them spreading across the land. Then they make fun of the special names you've come up with for your various coffees. Then they make fun of your topless corporate mascot.

Solution? Change your name...

it doesn't taste edgy

Don't you love it when a client decides to rebrand themselves to appeal to a completely different demographic? And don't you love it when they make a feeble attempt to position their product as 'edgy'?

If you do, you'll love the new Miracle Whip.

Miracle Whip, that pseudo-mayo substitute, has decided to reclaim the golden days and has, in a fit of madness, positioned itself in the hipster 18-to-34-year-old demographic. They've even come up with a social application (Zingr), cause you've got to have an app to compete these days...

The TV ads tout the 'new' Miracle Whip with what sounds almost like a call to arms - manning the barricades to defend our taste in spreadables sounds kind of...silly. This is not a form of protest, it is not a social movement and it is definitely not a way to set oneself apart. It's Miracle Whip. It's a spreadable topping. That's all.

The new label and logo are eerily reminiscent of the old label and logo while trying to maintain some kind of vintage street cred. At least I think that's how they described it in the focus groups. Sure they've moved away from the seizure-inducing background art and type, but it doesn't change the taste of the product. And I'm pretty sure it won't mix well with Pabst Blue Ribbon or whatever this weeks hipster beverage of choice is.

what's in your wallet?

Have you ever really taken a good look at the folding money you ever so briefly have in your hand? Have you thought about the designer and the entire process behind it? In Canada the design of a new series of notes takes several years.

Every country has currency, but some countries have used them as a medium for some excellent design.

A truly green brand

It's a brilliant idea. Sustainable eco-friendly architecture with a side benefit of delicious beer. What more could you ask for?

It didn't work out the first time but I suspect that a second attempt would be successful. What a great way to get your brand out there.

"Apparently, while on tour in Curacao, Alfred Heineken was troubled at the substandard, and in some cases, non-existent dwellings of the impoverished residents on the Dutch island. He decided to design a beer bottle - a "a brick that holds beer" - that could actually be used to build the walls of homes after being emptied. He went so far as to hire a renowned Dutch architect, John Habraken, to design a new bottle specifically designed to interconnect with other bottles, as well as masonry so that large numbers of them (about 1000 for a 10x10 foot room) could easily be fitted together to create a functional and attractive structure.

Unfortunately, though the design apparently worked, the project never took off and no buildings, save two experimental ones in the Netherlands, survive."

OH NO IT WENT VIRAL!

Want to meet attractive members of the opposite sex? Want to strike fear into the hearts of your enemies? Want to be so incredibly stylishly dressed that Anna Wintour will ask you for your secret?

You my friend need a patented "Three Wolf Moon T-shirt".

Without it, you're nothing. At least if the reviews on Amazon.com are to be believed. Don't ask the manufacturer though, they're referring to it as a "viral assault". Oh dear.

From the BBC News:

"Sales of the kitsch Three Wolf Moon T-shirt shot up 2,300% after a spate of ironic reviews went viral.

The first review gave the shirt five stars, saying it "Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women" but "cannot see wolves with arms crossed".

That prompted hundreds of others to post frivolous reviews, turning the page into an internet phenomenon.

"When I put this T-shirt on for the first time, my wife left me! Thank you, Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt," wrote one wag, while another said that "the Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt gave me a +10 resistance to energy attacks, +8 Strength... and I have successfully solved 7 crimes in my city".

Amazon's senior manager of community content, Russell Dicker, said the T-shirt was currently the top selling item in their clothing store.

"The Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt recently moved up 2,300% in sales rank," he said. "We are grateful that our reviewers are so passionate."

Publicity shy

However, the firm which actually makes the T-shirt appeared less than pleased at some of the comments.

"The Mountain is a wholesale company and does not sell shirts on Amazon, so this viral assault went under our radar until the shirt made it into the top 10 in the Amazon apparel section," they said in a posting on the Amazon site.

"We appreciate humour as much as the next company, but we don't approve of some of the remarks.

"Not everyone can start out at the top and not everyone from our neck of the woods lives in a trailer or cruises Walmart to hook up.""

Hello Diversification

Getting your logo, your company name and your brand in front of consumers - always a good idea. But it's getting a tad extreme...

And we won't even discuss the fetish themed cosmetics ad...

A box is a box is a box.

I love packaging. It's usually boring, the design equivalent of watching paint dry, but sometimes clients, creatives and inspiration all meet up, have a drink and come up with some really, really cool ideas.

Yes, packaging should be functional, it should brand and identify the maker, seller or product, but it can also be engaging, interesting and in some cases, close to art.