IKEA’s 2023 Advent Calendar is a Christmas-themed Diorama of Tiny Treats

While traditional advent calendars from the 1850s were designed as cards with biblical verses in them, counting down the days to Christmas, modern-day advent calendars make the process a little more fun by including tiny gifts that build up the anticipation to the 25th of December. Major brands participate in the Advent Calendar trend, and IKEA isn’t one to be left out. The Vinterfint Advent Calendar comes flat-packed like every IKEA product, and needs to be assembled together. Put the pieces together and you end up creating an adorable Christmas-themed diorama with characters, houses, trees, and a few snowmen too! Under each of these objects lies a small trinket or chocolate that sparks joy every day for the 24 days before the grand celebration!

Designer: IKEA

The Vinterfint advent calendar opens up to reveal an adorable Christmas scene featuring Santa, snowmen, and a few goats from the nativity display. You’ve also got decked-up Christmas trees and classic countryside-roofed houses amidst a snowy landscape.

Each paper object can be lifted up to reveal goodies underneath, featuring a selection of chocolates including pralines, nougats, and truffles, ensuring a sweet treat for each day leading up to Christmas. IKEA designer Paulin Machado envisioned it as a way to engage in holiday arts and crafts, providing everything needed to create a winter landscape complete with Christmas trees and snowmen.

The broader VINTERFINT collection, which the Advent Calendar is a part of, is IKEA’s way of creating a cozy atmosphere that falls in line with its brand ethos as well as the warm holiday spirit. The collection, inspired by Scandinavian folklore and traditional handicrafts, includes items like table linen, tree ornaments, gift bags, and wrapping paper. The wrapping paper, for instance, features horses, fire trees, and red apples, a nod to IKEA’s Swedish roots, infusing traditional Swedish folk art with a modern twist.

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This Gorgeous Coffee Advent Calendar gives you 24 Unique Blends to count down days till Christmas

A calendar that looks AND tastes great!

For the uninitiated, Advent Calendars aren’t your standard calendars. Rather than chronicling the 365 days into 12 months, Advent Calendars have just one simple purpose – to count down the days till Christmas. The calendar became somewhat of a tradition in the 1850s, with 24 different flaps that had Bible verses that you’d read every day up until Christmas Day on the 25th of December. In modern times, the calendar has become more of a gifting ritual, with brands creating tiny calendars with products/gifts for each day. This year, the folks at Onyx Coffee Lab decided to make a calendar that quite literally gets you ‘charged up’ for Christmas. The 2023 Coffee Advent Calendar comes in a gorgeous box that opens up to reveal an entire spread of coffee. The box itself is decorated beautifully with gold foil, and creates a wonderful fanned presentation of coffee sachets when opened. I imagine once you’re done drinking all that coffee, it would make for an incredible book or magazine holder!

Designer: Onyx Coffee Lab

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Featuring 24 days of coffee, the calendar explores various origins, blends, and processing methods, allowing you to experience a veritable tapestry of coffee flavors leading up to Christmas. It’s a perfect way to explore the world through a single cup before deciding on what coffee you want to try more of in the next year!

While Onyx delights practically every year with its gorgeous advent calendars, this year’s packaging exudes elegance and is designed to leave a lasting impression. The box’s exterior is adorned with stunning seasonal illustrations, enhanced with gold foil treatments. Upon opening the box, you’ll discover an accordion-style collection box revealing 24 individually wrapped bags of coffee. Each bag is marked from Day 1 to Day 24, guiding you on a daily journey of coffee discovery. A beautifully designed information card is also included, providing details about each coffee, adding to the overall unique coffee experience.

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Eco-Friendly Shampoo Bottle Dissolves After Use, Leaving Zero Waste

In a world grappling with the environmental repercussions of excessive plastic use, the need for sustainable alternatives has never been more pressing. Packaging waste, predominantly composed of plastic, poses a significant threat to our ecosystems. As we seek innovative solutions for a healthier planet, Philippine creative agency BBDO Guerrero has taken a bold step by sculpting vibrant shampoo bars into Dissolving Bottles, presenting an ingenious solution to the pervasive issue of plastic pollution.

Designer: BBDO Guerrero

The Dissolving Bottle shampoo bars are not just a practical alternative; they are a symbol of commitment to a sustainable and plastic-free future. The concept is simple yet revolutionary – as users lather up and wet the Dissolving Bottle, it gradually diminishes in size until it disappears, leaving no trace behind. This innovative approach eliminates the need for traditional toiletry containers, offering a convenient and eco-friendly solution for daily hygiene routines.

Introduced in 2021, the Dissolving Bottle has recently expanded its reach to several countries in Europe through a partnership with LUORO GmbH, a Cologne-based e-commerce company. The bottle-shaped shampoo bars, distributed under LUORO’s Plain B brand, are not just a visual marvel but also carry a powerful message. By adopting the familiar shape of a typical shampoo container, BBDO Guerrero aims to make the transition from plastic bottles to shampoo bars seamless for users.

David Guerrero, Creative Chairman at BBDO Guerrero, emphasizes that the Dissolving Bottle was conceptualized as a response to the escalating plastic pollution crisis. The personal care industry, a major contributor to environmental issues, produces over 500 billion single-use plastic items annually. To address this problem, BBDO Guerrero chose a design that not only promotes sustainability but also incorporates witty slogans on the shampoo bars, such as ‘Recedes quicker than your hair,’ ‘vanishes into thin air,’ ‘leaves nothing behind,’ and ‘guaranteed not to last,’ serving as comical reminders of the benefits of choosing plastic-free alternatives.

While the environmental impact of Dissolving Bottle Shampoo Bars is undeniably positive, questions arise regarding their commercial viability. The entire bottle serving as solidified shampoo requires careful handling, as exposure to water could initiate premature dissolution. To address this logistical concern, there might be a need to explore alternative packaging materials which will be interesting to learn.

Moreover, the shift from traditional soaps to liquid body washes, driven by ease of use and convenience, poses a challenge for the widespread adoption of solid shampoo bars. The need to incorporate essential information typically printed on packaging into the Dissolving Bottle’s design further adds a layer of complexity.

Marketing strategies play a pivotal role in bridging this gap, and the strategies employed by BBDO Guerrero are commendable and hold the potential to capture consumer attention. Offering an intriguing narrative that aligns with environmental consciousness.

As these Dissolving Bottle shampoo bars make their way into the European market, priced at a reasonable starting point of 5.99 EUR, it remains to be seen whether consumers will embrace this innovative solution to reduce plastic waste. The success of such eco-friendly initiatives depends not only on their environmental benefits but also on their ability to cater to the evolving preferences and habits of consumers. The Dissolving Bottle represents a commendable step towards a more sustainable future, and its journey in the consumer market will undoubtedly be closely watched.

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Redesigned Kleenex Tissue Box is Stronger, and makes it Easier to Reach the Last Few Tissues

In the grand scheme of global design, it’s easy to take the basics for granted. Why bother redesigning a tissue box when we’ve got more pressing issues like solving the Climate Crisis, or going to Mars, right?! The case that needs to be made, however, is to look at the small problems with equal intensity as the larger ones. A problem ignored is a problem persisted, and with enough time, it really becomes a part of our life in general. Take for instance the humble tissue box. Outwardly, it’s a pretty simple product – a box with a cutout that you can dip your hands into to reach for tissues. Dig a little deeper and you realize that it isn’t perfect. The box’s inherent design makes it rather flimsy, and when you get to the bottom of the box, reaching for the last few tissues can involve some mildly frustrating deep digging… to say the least.

Designed by studio CLAY Inc. for Yuhan-Kimberly (South Korea’s joint-venture in charge of the brand Kleenex), this reimagined tissue box has a unique feature that allows it to overcome its past problems. When full, the box holds its shape really well (thanks to the tissues inside giving it volume), but as and when you reach the bottom, the box can be pushed into a new arched/curved structure that makes it much more stable, while reducing the the box’s overall height at the mid-section. This makes it easier to reach the bottom of the box without having the entire structure collapsing on you. The new box design is elegant, clever, and eco-friendly too, with the use of bamboo recycled paper in its construction. Moreover, it uses no ink (helping save cost while enhance recyclability) but rather comes with a simple Kleenex logo embossed on the side. The box is easy to use from start to finish, and once done, can easily be recycled or composted without any material impact on the environment.

The redesigned Kleenex Facial Tissue Box is a Winner of the Red Dot Award: Design Concept for the year 2023.

Designer: CLAY Inc. for Yuhan-Kimberly, South Korea

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