Join us on a brief journey into Japanese cupnoodle packaging design with a visit to the Cupnoodle Museum in Yokohama, Japan.
The museum focuses largely on the genius of Momofuku Ando – the inventor of the first instant noodles – who on the same idea build an entire empire which is Nissin Foods today.
The museum has several main areas: First up is the My Cupnoodle Factory a sort of workshop to produce your very own cup of instant noodles. After being handed a blank cup one can design it using a bunch of big colourful marker pens. Thereafter one can choose a mix of ingredients and walks away with a custom produced cup of noodles.
Next up is the so called Noodles Bazaar – World Noodles Road, a whole floor dedicated to sample noodle dishes from around the world in handy half-cup portions. Amongst a few other kids attractions one can enjoy a detailed walk-through of the Nissin history called Story of Momofuku Ando (unfortunately in Japanese language only).
However the most interesting area is the Instant Noodle History Cube where one can marvel at more than 50 years of instant noodle (cup) packaging designs by Nissin (starting from 1958 until this current day).
The very first instant noodle pack from 1958:
The journey continues with the invention of the noodles in a cup and other instant dishes often featuring popular Japanese characters.
Other packing on display are designs for regions such as China and Southeast Asia.
Momofuku Ando is now acknowledged as creative genius for inventing instant noodles. Yet today the existence of instant noodles seems rather ordinary and obvious. In hindsight most inventions seem so very obvious!
Coincidentally the DMIJ-Bots have recently created a new Ramen-themed design for the DMIJ Shop, see some samples below:
The products can be found in the DMIJ Shop and free worldwide shipping is available until 14th May 2015 if accessed through this discount link: http://society6.com/designmadeinjapan?promo=MBYCM76QGZVJ