The rash (we use the term advisedly) of subscription boxes recently has proved one thing pretty clearly: cool subscription box packaging really is everything. And this week, we haven’t seen any packaging cooler than this student project for an “analog” music subscription service called Rewind featuring the classic Joy Division album Unknown Pleasures. (And for more Cool Packaging, be sure to hit us up here.)
Here’s the pitch from Art Center College of Design student Issac Ruiz:
“Each issue box features one artist, where a cassette tape, exclusive photos, handwritten lyrics, and other exclusive items aim to make tangible all that define the artist’s world. Rewind is the subscription to the analog lifestyle…. The first issue also acts as an entry issue, providing a cassette tape player, earphones, a rewind stick[er], exclusive photos of the band and cassette tape.”
This subscription box packaging wins on two fronts. First, it is beautifully designed, complete with a photo of 1979 Manchester where the featured band, Joy Division, performed, and an uber-moody image of the band on the box itself.
Secondly, the subscription box packaging as a whole uses good design to simultaneously rehabilitate the desirability of the humble cassette tape (which seemed like a junky technology horribly packaged even in its heyday) AND transform music from being one more piece of cheap digital fodder into something that very nearly has a beating heart.
And really, you don’t get much cooler than Joy Division…
