MS in Intelligent Packaging: Conceptual Packaging Design Course Project
(Calyxes, Wire, Roses, Plaster, Paint, 9.5 x 11 x 18,5 cm, 2021)

Historians and scholars claim that man was "first adorned and then clothed." The main reason they attribute to this condition, is to attract the opposite sex. Since then, it seems, everything is done for this reason. In art, for example, the female body in the paintings served purely the purposes of pleasing the male eye. So each century had its own standards of beauty that mutated according to time and place.

A typical example is the Flemish features, that commanded a large forehead to women as a charm so they were shaving the hair on the front of the head to fit this beauty standard. So each time period shows new changes and corresponding adjustments around the theme of beauty.

The predominance of skinny body type plagues our time, fashion is addressed only to "skinny" and catwalk models. "Labels" on people is a common thing now.

Standards define society and create alienated groups. Anything different tends to be marginalized. The so-called body-shaming takes on huge proportions and pushes people into isolation. Continuous bullying starts in schools, as children at these ages are characterized by inexhaustible cruelty. This can be continued in the other activities of the child, as well as in the rest of his life in any attempt to join any group.

Thus, a hazy image is formed in each self. Women are lost in the plastic world and in how they "should" look and behave, as a result of which they lose themselves. They intervene in their appearance in a more permanent way than the “innocent” make-up. They believe that they are not good enough, that they have to correct their appearence in order to be liked, without usually doing it for themselves, but for the recognition of others, thus destroying their perfection and uniqueness.

The results of the standards, make a society homogeneous with aggressive treatment to divergent factors. Hostility reigns and individuals close in on themselves as they find no acceptance anywhere. This feeds an internal conflict to anyone who can not join the sets that have created the beauty standards of the time, which feed this conflict daily and try to keep it alive in every way, since it is the source of their existence.

The course task was to pick and pack a gift for ourselves. Based on the above conditions and personal relevant experiences and experiences, I proceeded with the “Gift of Harmony and Self-Confidence”.

The packaging of this gift, the basic box, started with the thought that when we receive a gift, we do not usually keep the packaging, but throw it away and keep the contents. On this basis, an attempt was made to symbolize the controversy on this package, so that it would be "thrown away" after receiving the gift. The symbolism emerged from cartridges left overs, as a clear allegory of war and controversy. This is what beauty standards get us into, a war with ourselves.

I did not want the way it closes to be in any way simple and easy, "Goods are hard to come by". It’s hard to make peace with yourself and achieve the inner harmony and self-love. So the padlock seemed like a safe way to move but the approach should not be nice. A padlock with carved decoration reminiscent of jewelry cases would be inappropriate in this case. Furthermore, I found the most "raw", industrialized materials for closing this box, with the padlock being the most basic and simple found.

Its key, however, had to be made as inaccessible as possible, as the only object that effectively gives access to the contents of the box. So I made my own ball-shaped wire mesh to lock it in. The result was that it was very difficult to get it out of there, in order to emphasize the perseverance needed to come up with this coveted gift. The simplest thing is to give up, but the secret lies in effort, perseverance and patience.

After studying the colors, the choice of Prussian blue for this box emerged, given the mixing of blood in it at the beginning of its creation. In addition, however, it concerns the choice on a completely personal level and expression through the color blue for the use of blue as a spiritual color, in an effort to highlight the spiritual journey I am going through at this time in my life, between two simultaneous postgraduate programs and other additional studies.

I had decided from the beginning that the gift should be represented by a flower, while the first thing that came to my mind automatically and inwardly was the rose. Wanting to avoid the clichés associated with this flower, I researched the types of flowers and their symbolism and meaning. In them, fascinated by the meanings that colors have taken over the centuries, I also dealt with roses and the symbolism they have per color. So I proceeded to choose the cliché rose, which however when its color is blue, anything but cliché one can say. This choice, then, lies in the symbolism given to it as intangible, to accompany the highly endangered green rose, referred to as the messenger of peace. The search for the blue but especially for the green rose enhanced the meaning given to them in terms of their color and rarity. Especially through this process of searching for green, which was difficult and required time, research, perseverance and patience, I realized that it is in line with the meaning given to it, because it is not easy to achieve true inner peace and tranquility, the cessation of the conflict with ourselves, because we always tend to be much harsher with ourselves than with others. It is a painful process that requires work, requires searching, requires endurance. It is very easy for someone to give up. Let's not forget that although both were very difficult to find but green in particular was almost impossible.

Taking into account the meanings given to these two colors, blue is attributed, being artificial, to something intangible, which, the fact that I was able to find it with a greater ease than green, gives me hope that its condition as elusive may have begun to be demolished, as is the whole meaning I gave it based on the symbolism of its color. So perhaps it could stand as a hope for the conquest of the treaty that symbolizes the green rose that accompanies it, that of peace, tranquility and harmony without being elusive constants.