17 November 2014

Packaging takes flight - Dresden (Germany)

A recent trip to Germany for a folding carton event took me to Dresden in the east of the country, where packaging examples unique to Germany, and to the city itself, were there to be seen.

This included the Zimmermann Weißwurst-Schlemmerbox, a gift pack boxed in a carton decorated with a Bavarian landscape and featuring three 530g tubs of Munich white sausage and a 100ml jar of Händlmaier's sweet mustard.

One-liter bottles of Wurzelpeter were also on show, with the label decorated with the beverage brand’s character gnome Wurzel, presumably brewing up a batch of the herbal liqueur under the watchful gaze of a forest-dwelling owl.

For those with more of a sweet tooth, the retail outlets at Dresden International Airport were ripe with interesting and intriguing packaging to gaze upon (or buy and taste if your will power is as weak as mine).

This included a range of Dresdner Schokolade chocolate bars, each with a distinctive label featuring graphic highlights of the city presented through the eyes of a cartoon cat wandering around Dresden itself.

With Christmas not too far away, it was no surprise to see packaging tailored to this annual festivity, although it was pleasing to see a carton sledge being used to retail Reber Mozart chocolates in a festive fashion.

Wintery scenes printed on the packaging augment this appearance, while a bow and gift wrapping on the products themselves add to the decorative, gift-giving impact of the packaging.

Also to be seen and bought was a chocolate bar in packaging featuring the popular Nickelodeon TV character SpongeBob Squarepants, along with his friend Sandy Cheeks and pet Gary the Snail, while a travel exclusive pack of Smarties featured both a graphic of a limited edition orange Smarties character piloting a propeller-driven aircraft and a spinning toy propeller attached to the front of the pack.

A product you will see regularly at airports is travel packs of Haribo sweets, coincidentally a German brand, and at Dresden International Airport The Smurfs were to found adorning its packaging, alongside a host of other variants of the brand’s gummy confectionery.