Urban Homesteading Project (UHP)

Great performance piece at the 2008 Figment Festival involving used plastic bottles. From the Emergence - Creative Pioneers in Uncharted Territory show. Urban Homesteading Project (UHP) by Francisca Caporali, Laura Grace Chipley, Pilar Ortiz.

Quoted from the site.
"Concept: Over nine weeks, the structure will be gradually insulated with salvaged plastic bottles, re-purposed as receptacles for organic life. Within each bottle, living plants are cultivated in either soil or water.The dialogue and interaction initiated through the construction of the homestead in tandem with planting, cultivating, and harvesting is integral to sustainability. The collaboration between artists and audience patterns a simple model of a community.

Participate: Viewers are invited to donate plastic bottles and participate in the planting process. At the end of the summer, the wood skeleton will be recycled and the plants will be given away; transplanted to a new place in which to grow roots and emerge."

A Packaged Past

Classic packaging on display in a store on the West Village. As a designer its fascinating to look at the art and typography from another time period. As a consumer it's amazing what nostalgic memories packaging can stir from the past.

Happiness seeing packaging of your favorite toy or board game. Reminiscing on your favorite tv show. movie or cartoon when looking at an old lunch box. In this case the popcorn box evoked a flashback from grade school. Friday movie day! I can remember the smell of the buttery popcorn in the air as it was poured into the box just before the movie started.

Second life for a packaging not only when recycling but when it takes you down memory lane.

Notable Packaging @ Renegade Craft Fair

At the 2008 Renegade Craft Fair in McCarren Park Pool, Body Care Packaging dominated as the most creative and compelling. Check out who UD picked for Most Notable Packaging and all the runner ups. 

Biggs & Featherbell

Biggs & Featherbell Heath Conscious Body Care was chosen as UD's Most Notable Packaging. Their packaging is hand painted with bright colors and gives off a playful girly essences. Each item has a clever name and a corresponding illustration. Biggs & Featherbell products and packaging are made by sisters Kelly and Hasey Evick. Check out all the places you can buy Biggs & Featherbell. 

And The Runner Ups Are:

Dirty Loves Clean

Check out Dirty Loves Clean soup packaging made from New York City Subway maps and corrugated cardboard.

Honey Flower

Check out the Honey Flower Natural Skincare product line and Blog. 

Disquieting Designs

Check out Disquieting Designs body care products and their new Soytastic soy candles on their website where you can buy it all. 

Bunny Butt Apothecary

Check out Bunny Butt Apothecary hand-crafted soaps and excellent smelling perfumes.

Renegade Craft Fair

On scene at the 2008 Renegade Craft Fair in Williamsburg. Great turnout despite moments of heavy rain and sweltering heat. A DIY fair featuring over 200 vendors in McCarren Park Pool.

One booth of note was the body care packaging and products from Biggs & Featherbelle. The gorgeous illustration, typography and brown corrugated wrapper around a sweet smelling soap caught UD's attention.

Mast Brothers Chocolate

I found Mast Brothers Chocolate at Urban Rustic, a 100% organic and sustainable indoor farmers market along McCarren Park. Mast Brothers Chocolate is handmade in Brooklyn, NY and is wrapped in a vintage patterned paper. The self-described "Leaders Of The Chocolate Revolution," Mast Brothers Chocolate can also be found at Artists and Fleas, Spuyten Duyvil Grocery, Marlow and Sons and Blue hill Cafe in Williamsburg. 

East Pack Packaging Expo 2008

East Pack is the east cost's largest packaging expo and UnwrappedDesign was there to see it all. The convention featured the latest innovations in packaging, processing and technology. Two floors of the massive Jacob K. Javits Convention Center were filled with trade booths displaying each company's packaging, innovative new recyclable packaging materials, and assembly lines showing how the packaging was stamped out, assembled, filled with the product and labeled. Visiting the booths there was a common theme expressed of maximum product exposure with minimum packaging using recyclable materials. Check out some of the packaging we saw at East Pack 2008.

Inside the Jacob Javits Center

Bottles That Got My Attention

I'm constantly observing the packaging being sold all around me. When I walk down the aisle of a corner market or grocery store, I let the packaging on the shelves compete for my attention. I try to see whose label, shape, or interesting detail stands out most. 

Checkout some of the bottles I've picked up recently.