Traditional Japanese packaging for food products has historically been made of the natural materials-at-hand out of utilitarian necessity. Straw, bamboo sheath (the leaf that covers the sprouting bamboo shoot), and thinly shaved sheets of wood show an abiding connection to nature and a crafted human touch. Although this package design for Forest House Honey does not use wrapping materials plucked from nature, it has that sensibility in a 21st century kind of way. Yamagata-based Akaoni Design gave the packaging a simple humility with its unbleached brown paper and rubber-stamped floral block print patterns. Rather than a slick, “over-designed” manufactured look, the product has a farmer’s market “boutique” quality. It feels wholesome, organic, unadulterated by additives, and packaged by human hands and not mass produced by machine.

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