Inspiring Package Design

The website thedieline.com has become a great source of inspiration for me. It was started in 2007 by Andrew Gibbs and is dedicated to the progress of the package design industry. Its purpose is to "define and promote the world's best packaging design, and provide a place where the package design community can review, critique and stay informed of the latest industry trends and design projects being created in the field." They feature award winning designs, before & after projects, student work, concept work, and more! This makes it not only a great place to find package inspiration, but it's also great for typography and layout ideas as well. You can even search by industry (beverages, books & media, food & gourmet, etc,) or substrate (aluminum, plastic bottle, wood, etc,).

My favourite designs on their site at the moment are:

Jarcakes, designed by Benji Peck of Peck and Co. 
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I have no idea what these would taste like...and frankly, they remind me more of canned bread then something freshly baked, but their tiny glass jars and paper wrapping are absolutely adorable, and incredibly persuasive.

Chocolate Bar Wrapping, designed by Construct for the Berkeley luxury hotel.
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Though this packaging is plain and simple, it's clever and entertaining. I love how they've named each piece the way a lot of people try to rationalize eating chocolate. It starts with "a small treat" then leads to "one piece is never enough," to "I really shouldn't," then "oh go on then," and ends with "if you insist" and "might as well finish it."

Concept: Limited Edition Tea Packaging for The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, designed by Beth Would.
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Tea canisters are a classic, and these unusual modern flavours are a wonderful, playful contrast.