ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an outline of the importance of distribution and mobility—by way of circulation—to wider discussions of design and commodity culture. It considers the importance of packaging and protection to corporeal mobilities, whilst also drawing out a direct relationship with the role of protective packaging design in logistics and supply chain mobilities. The chapter investigates the importance of a crucial, but under-considered, aspect of packaging design: the materiality of packaging inserts themselves. Moulded paper pulp packaging is usually either brown or grey in colour with one smoother interior side and a rougher exterior. The chapter forms a key distinction between 'shaping the void' as a piece of bespoke design determined by the shape and form of the product, and 'filling the void' as an ad hoc form of design. The latter in particular is reactive as opposed to proactive.
