37. UTILIA
“I saw a girl who looked like Edie Sedgwick at a party,” begins Utilia’s Jiri Vanmeerbeeck. That girl turned out to be electro-pop singer Anita Lixel. One thing led to another, and soon after their meeting Lixel entrusted the design of her debut single “In Your Game … Boy” to Vanmeerbeeck.

“For Anita, the CD needed to be as pop as it could get, meaning throwaway. Nowadays CDs, including cover art, only get ripped onto your PC/iPod, then disappear into the basement, so I made PC/iPod packaging like a candy,” says the designer. Inspired by their first encounter, Vanmeerbeeck drew on images of Andy Warhol’s 1966 Silver Clouds Installation for the CD’s packaging. The product contains only the essentials, with all printing located on the CD rather than its package. The minimalist approach to the design resolved budget issues in finding a manufacturer willing to produce a short run of only 500 pieces.

Once opened, the vacuum-sealed package reveals a second identical CD, strategized to encourage the sharing of music through peer-groups. “The second CD should make sure Anita’s promotion as an up-and-coming artist goes twice as fast,” Vanmeerbeeck notes. “Doubters can now try the CD they got from a friend, and still get hooked in the end.”
Deanna Rooney