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August 5th, 2018: Packaging makeover of “K-Rations
In the latter part of World War II they spiffied up the packages as a moral booster.
They added color as a claimed moral booster, but with the shit getting heavy at that point made it easier to grab the right meal for the enemy's circadian rhythm.
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“Rations Type K” were developed by inventor and public health scientist, Ancel Keys, which may (or may not) explain the “K” in K-Ration. (There is debate about that.) The boxes were manufactured by the Cracker Jack company and were similar in size and material to Cracker Jack boxes.
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Originally the packages were generically labeled: “Breakfast,” “Dinner” and “Supper.” Towards the end of the war they were redesigned (as part of a “morale” initiative) to make the three meals more easily distinguishable with 3 new color-coded / pattern-coded designs.
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Who handled the graphic design? Some anonymous, government-employed graphic designer? An advertising agency of the time? K-Ration boxes were featured in the Brooklyn Museum’s 2001 exhibit, Vital Forms: American Art and Design in the Atomic Age, 1940-1960, as one of many examples illustrating the impact of organic form on graphic design.
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The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.
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