Different

How far can the limits of packaging design be pushed? What if a package is shaped not just by marketing considerations or the basic commitments of the product, but rather by pure innovative concepts?
During the past two decades, packaging design has undergone a dramatic change in both use of the material and the design aspect itself. Packages are not just containers for products anymore, rather methods for communication. They increasingly attempt to dissolve into the product and become an inherent part of it. These are the issues which concern Zwoelf most, a nascent Berlin-based design studio which concentrates mostly on high-quality, different and long-standing designs. Set up in 2000, it consists of three main designers: Stefan Guzy, Marcus Lisse and Bjoern Wiede.
The album design for Elyjah’s Planet, Planet is an example which appeared as a shifting image between a shooting target and a planetary system from bird’s-eye view. Another example is LP and CD packaging for Delbo’s Havarien the design of which remains invisible while intact. The idea of individual auditory sense while experiencing the music is metaphorically translated into tactile sense while holding a cover in the user’s hands.

One is not just shaping the music with personal memories, but rather shaping the look of it through touch. Therefore, the result is nothing but your very own inimitable music and cover. For Landscape Izuma’s Kolorit Remix album, Zwoelf designed a package consisting of several colorful elastic bands which held on to the record and CD with a simple-cut cardboard in between.
Zwoelf has a very literal approach to design. Ideas and concepts, in their point of view, should be touching. As Stefan Guzy described: “It’s all about touching somebody’s heart. If you buy a copy of a CD we’ve designed, our one and only goal has been making the music inside tangible and keeping you in touch with the artist behind it. If a design is only about beauty, neat typography and nice printing techniques, it will be boring. Good design consists of a good idea.” Zwoelf undoubtedly refuses any superficial design that builds up an opaque wall between the audience and the work. They move towards a transparent way of communication according to which, any design element stands for a specific concept and not just for the pure beauty of the surface.
www.en.zwoelf.net