A Wider Net

Foodies know what I’m talking about - an experience isn’t limited to the payoff. In the case of dining, the experience includes the anticipation based on the reputation of the chef and the restaurant, the ambience, the service, the scents, the sounds, and of course - the actual tastes, textures, and aromas of the food. But the presentation - the act and result of plating the food in a fashion that makes the meal look almost too good to eat - plays a role in that experience. Maybe presentation doesn’t affect taste as much as the bouquet of a fine red wine affects it’s reception by your palate, but it does affect the overall experience.

Take this ginormously over-engineered ring box below called the Euricase. It’s a box. It holds a gift item of value. And it might just be more interesting than the item itself. One thing is for certain, it is going to profoundly affect the experience of receiving this gift.

Inside the luxury container is an LCD display that cycles through a series of photographs. In the case of engagement rings, it would (I assume) feature photos that prove to the would-be ring-bearer that “yes” is the only correct answer to the ensuing question. Post-wedding, one would probably insert images of the wedding, as shown in the example or, more wisely, keep those “pre-proposal proof-you-should-say-yes images” in there to help answer the inevitable question years later “what was I THINKING?”

As LCD, OLED, and other display technology gets leaner and cheaper, this sort of living, active surface can be incorporated just about anywhere.

I would love to make a VIP pitch package using something like this - where the proposal, boards, and other materials are packaged within a video-encrusted case. Glittering and alive, the package would tell my story immediately upon opening. It would also make a terrific way to give a long-time employee a service award - their gold watch would be surrounded by vivid memories of their long career - something they can re-use with their family for years later.

In retail and exhibits, this type of package would make a great demo station for just about any premium product from jewelry to cellular phones. Gummy bears probably don’t need this level of presentation - they speak for themselves.

We do have a responsibility to make sure we don’t place these cheap displays in an application that could be considered a throwaway. In our (re)newly green-spirited culture we should make sure that the display has some residual usefulness after it’s role as a one-off “wow”.

Counterpoint: Ok, part of me wants to simply shout “Come on! Isn’t the ring enough, already?” I guess I like the packaging for applications when the “ring” isn’t enough.

Via Everything USB