3D Iconic Form

Packaging, branding and trademarks are all so intertwined with iconic 3D forms. “The term 'icon' goes back to the Byzantium where local artists were trained to exactly replicate religious images so that no matter where the icons traveled, viewers would share the same emotional experience. Modern marketing is seeking to do exactly the same.”

See article on Designing Iconic Packaging - http://www.agiklearfold.com/news/article/PD_AGI_Iconic_Packaging.pdf

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the case of the Ketchup (or catsup) bottle, the shape is so closely allied to the product that without labels any American can easily identify the contents of any traditional catsup bottle. Shapes not only have functions, they have associations. Further, without labels, anyone can identify the Heinz bottle. As any student of the art history of Western culture knows, traditional iconography and traditional forms are closely wedded together, it is quite possible, in fact, that iconography and form are functions of each other.

http://www.studiolo.org/Email/KETCHUP.htm

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coca-Cola has just received trademark recognition for its iconic bottle. The elongated hourglass bottle became a registered U.S. trademark in 1960 and is honored by Russia and China, among other nations. Coca-Cola began fighting for Japanese trademark registration of its "contour bottle" back in 2003. Other shapes associated with pop culture and American food, notably Kentucky Fried Chicken's Colonel Sanders, have won Japanese trademarks. What made the Coke case different is the fact that its bottle has no lettering whatsoever. In fact, it's the first bottle sans lettering to receive a trademark in that country.

http://www.slashfood.com/2008/06/03/cokes-iconic-bottle-wins-japanese-trademark/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There just aren’t that many great great great ad campaigns. I’m talking about the ad campaigns that transcend commerce and become art. But the Absolut Vodka campaign hits that mark. That’s why, of course, there are books and collectible posters related to the campaign, just as there have been with Volkswagen, Campari and other great brands, that focus on the iconic bottle shape.

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2006/01/absolut_ads_a_g.h

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nabisco makes Barnum's Animal Crackers, arguably the most famous commercially produced version of the snack, due to the distinctive package art of a circus cage on wheels and full of animals, with a distinctive handle. The string handle was originally added so that the box could be hung on a Christmas tree or house plant.