I bought this box of mints in Costa, when I was having it in the classroom, two of my classmates noticed that I was eating mints and more importantly, both of them mentioned that the box is a very good piece of design.
What is so special about this little tin box?
First, I am not going to talk about what they said was good about this box at the moment. Many people buy mints, and I bet a million quid, that even it’s something so unobtrusive, people will prefer to buy mints with nicer packages, because all mints taste the same and people always like better looking things. POLOs are nice but the package is just so perfunctory, and that’s why I stopped buying them. If there is something I need to take it out of my pocket time to time, I need it to be delicate, a little metal box will do the job.
I’d like to say this box looks appealing to me. It’s silver with its name written on the top of the box in grey, again a minimalism visual effect. It’s rectangularly shaped with rounded edges, that makes it fits better in pockets, especially for people who like to wear skinny jeans, which according to Jeremy Clarkson, is one of the two coolest things in the world. The back of the box has a sticker with some information nobody cares about. Such as ingredients, nutritional values and weight. The box is thicker in the centre than the edge, it looks bulky, feels like they filled more mints in the box than it can contain.
Already, so many details went into designing a little peppermint box.
Open the box, you can see the reason why my classmates mentioned it was a good design. Under the metal cover, there is another black, plastic unremovable cover with a little hole on it, so whenever you want some mints and you shake the box, it only allows one or two of them to come out each time. Also the hole is placed at the bottom left corner of the rectangular shape, so it's easy to pour the mints on hand. Consider the surrounding environment when people want a mint. It could be on the street while walking, could be standing on a bus, or underground. Without this plastic cover, mints could be spread all over the floor if the person using it had a big wobble. This is an example of a little detail that improves the whole design.
Ignore the rounded edges, ignore the colour choice, ignore the bulky effect. This little black plastic unremovable is the essence of the design of this box. As Dieter Rams said, good design needs to be unobtrusive. This box design ticks the box for that.
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