I want to rethink the way we package condoms and I had an idea of embossing different penis shaped fruit like cucumber, carrots and bananas etc on the condom wrapper to indicate different sizes or flavor or colors(as I wanted to use natural dye from for my condoms). Like aways, someone had the same idea!!
Condom packaging using fruits and veggies to give sizing context, as dreamed up by Guan-Hao Pan.
(https://99u.adobe.com/articles/54712/designing-the-next-generation-of-condom-packaging)
(https://www.dezeen.com/tag/condoms/)
The packaging design illustrated a good concept but it created too many excessive and unnecessary packaging waste. Like the foil sealer and the plastic cap for the whole packaging and the buttercup individual package.
Following this trail, I discovered a company in China that makes buttercup condom packaging.
(https://www.customcondomsfactory.com/tag/buttercup-condom/)
Condom brand One(started as an American company, but acquired by Karex later), hold design contest for their condom wrappers every year. They are also one of the few company that uses the round wrapper design instead of the conventional square one with serrated edge. It is largely a part of their branding and marketing campaign effort but end up building an online package graphic design community which is very interesting. There are no innovation on the material of the wrapper though, it is still the old fashion foil plastic wrapper that is pretty standard in the industry.
Even the round packaging seems using smaller amount of material than the square one. In fact it does not make that much of a difference. Because that whether you throw away offcuts of packing during production or the wrappers being thrown away by end user. It is all nonrenewable waste, just disposed at different state.
Also inclusiveness in terms of condom packaging is rarely in discussion. British designer Ben Pawle come up with a condom wrapper for people with disabilities that can be opened with a simple finger-clicking action.
(https://www.dezeen.com/2012/09/05/one-handed-condom-wrapper-by-ben-pawle/)
A group of students from Wuhan University designed a Blind Condom wrapper for visually impaired people to distinguish the positive side from negative, which brings a great trouble to them during sex. And the wrong application of condoms are one of the factor that impact the effectiveness of condoms.
If the packaging can be made by the same material as the condom or more renewable materials, then any offcuts of the packaging can be recycled and made into new products or packaging.
If I add some sort of Organic UV absorbers to the packaging material it might be a good option?
(https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/article/1307/uv-protection-for-packaged-foods/)
These are all great creative ideas for condom package design, and I will work on incorporating these ideas into my own packaging design for biocondom
RCA Graduate diploma 2019 