Key remains the king of album packaging. His creativity is unmatched. His albums are always my favorite ones from the year.

i can't wait to own the guilty box version! i love the fact that it's so deeply related to the song's lyrics and album concept; besides being a cute memory box, the bottom part w the hole is almost like someone's spying on him and staring at him during his most vulnerable moments and also someone taking advantage of him while he's in a happy, dreamy state. personally, i'm not usually a fan of all-white albums but some standouts for me are dojaejung's perfume box versions and shinee's hard play version. they're both so beautifully constructed and look so elegant, perfume even comes w a lil perfume sample of each member's scent (i got doyoung's and i'd be willing to spend on the bottle, PHEW) + the concept photos are just so good and tell a story related to the scent. shinee's hard is built like a board game and even comes w gamepieces and instructions on how to play according to each member's individual gamepiece. they also both come w postcards, which i love since i adore using them to decorate my walls. also wd like to mention the gameplay version of key's killer, it looks like an old-school videogame and the photobook is tiny and resembles a game cartridge. ugh, just so cool. key never fails in the packaging department! i will never stop advocating for digipacks, not sure if i love sm's new poster trend since the cds are never properly secured but if the posters are nicely designed like during rv's chill kill & aespa's spicy & drama, they're worth getting imo. however, they needed to put way more effort into fact check's poster versions 😭 i also agree in that melting point is SUCH an upgrade from youth in the shade and i love how the spine makes it feel like a classic old storybook! i hope wakeone keeps it up. i will say i kinda hate how big the zb1 digipacks are since i can't store them w the rest of my digis 😭 great video as always maria!

Hello, Maria! Thank you for the video! Regarding the box of Taemin's album, I read another theory, but more creepy. Since Taemin sings about the negative side of the K-pop industry in his title song, this box represents what sasaengs usually keep in their homes. At first glance, everything is pretty decent, but underneath the double bottom are some pretty scary things that some crazy fans are stealing from idols. That is why in the box there is only one lace and other garbage in the form of an empty ice cream box and receipts from the store. This is also why the cards are close shots of parts of his body (idols are often objectified due to their appearance and body details). I think this album packaging is one of the most thoughtful. I've never seen the limited edition version of the 8turn album, but it's so cool! Regarding the Golden Age, I only bought the photobook version, which I really liked both in terms of concept and design. In Nct it is always so difficult for me to choose between members, and I don’t really like the envelope format. I won’t write about poster versions - it seems to me that this is a sore subject for collectors of SM groups :D But what I really liked was the design and artwork of Dojaejung's album. It looks very stylish, expensive and fits perfectly into the concept. Also, I can’t help but praise the diary format of (G)I-dle’s album this year. A photobook in collage format, conveniently opening pages and a cat on the cover.

On the topic of the NCT U Golden Age Collecting versions, I completely agree with everything you said about the sticker on the envelope and the plastic sleeve it came in. I was so curious about how you were supposed to build it that I bought 7 to test it myself. The bolt holds them comfortably, but I don't think 8 would be a good idea. I thought it would be hard to flip through and difficult to store, but it's actually kind of nice. It stays stacked unless you fan it out yourself and sits on the shelf like any other album. I think it could hold all of the index pages for all 20 members without the photobooks, but I don't know what you would do with everything else. I just have the envelopes sitting to the side, I move them around my shelf a lot since they don't really have a home and I don't know what else to do with them. I feel like the concept was a great initial idea and that SM is definitely onto something. I just hope the next time they try it, it's not with a group of 20. As a somewhat fresh-out-of-school graphic designer, I really love watching these videos. The designs and concepts were one of the things that got me into collecting K-pop and I get so excited when I get to hear another designer's thoughts! Thank you so much for the video and happy new year!

I love this archive box version of taemin’s guilty too. I think most ppl my age can relate with it. I kinda have that too. A random box with random stuff like self-burnt cd, receipts, a lot of membership cards, etc. and this album even has a secret compartment. I also think it is about memories with your ex😊 All in all this packaging is not only cool but it also feels very personal. I love it so much❤

I agree with you about the GOLDEN AGE album - I was not a fan of the "assemble yourself" type of album or the bolt putting the album pages together. I wasn't able to get my #1 member Taeyong for that when I joined a group order but I just didn't love the album package enough to spend money on the album again because I found it so annoying to open with the sticker envelope. The good thing though was because it's all paper, shipping by weight was much cheaper haha and the photography is beautiful. I also LOVE the Archive Version for Taeyong's "Shalala" - it's one of the more personal album designs/photography I've seen and I was really happy to own a copy :) Thank you for your video - always love hearing your perspective on album packaging!

i lovee digipacks!! especially when u’re getting into a new group and getting ur biases digipack version and having them on ur shelves staring at you (im looking at u, sung hanbin), when u dont directly want to commit urself to buy a whole album or collecting them, just as you mentioned in the video 🫶🫶

I agree with you for The Boyz "Phantasy" series and OmegaX albums: I really love this type of packaging. My favorite packaging for 2023 are: (G)I-dle "I feel" the cat version, I love the concept and the collage photo; Boynextdoor "WHY" the letter version is small and I love the design; Seventeen "Heaven" the normal version is compact, easy to place in the shelf and I like how it opens with that sort of drawer; TXT "Freefall" the weverse version, is tiny and the typography is gorgeous! And the last two are the love and hate packaging: Boynextdoor "WHO" cereal box version and 82major "ON" normal version, for both, the box is fragile, but the concept and the inclusions (especially for 82major) are amazing!

Oh by the way, the saddle stitch bindings with the bend in it (as you saw in Key's album packaging) allows you to put it in your binder!

idk anything about Blitzers but OHMYGOD I am OBSESSED with that packaging!!!!! Even the cover you could definitely mistake it for a regular magazine that you see at convenience stores or supermarkets if you didn't know any better lol

The albums from The Boyz are sooo pretty

I can never pick biases(also if im buying the album I want to have stuff from all the members) so I hate digipacks, but I LOVE the cd part of kpop albums so I wish companies would make group versions!! the cd and owning the music physically is one of my favorite parts of an album so boring cds always bother tf out of meeeee

i never usually buy poca or weverse albums but one that i did get instantly was boynextdoor's [WHY..] weverse version. i just love the design being like a matchbox so much, i think it's so cute and the concept is so pretty! yes the inclusions aren't great but it's the first time i bought an album purely for the packaging!

i feel that , for the way sm seemed to construct the member versions for golden age , it might have been better if they had just made it more into a binder situation . it definitely would have made more sense , although im not sure how they could make it to where it's not adding on a lot of additional packaging / waste since the intent seems to be to join it with the other member versions . maybe if they had made the group vers. a binder that you could then add the additional members you'd like into it (and maybe some binder pages to store pcs & inclusions) but idk . it just seems like they were close to making a 'perfect' set of member versions but kind of failed on executing it properly (and i say this as someone who's bought multiple copies of the member version bc i really do enjoy them) . other than that , i really did enjoy seeing someone actually sit down and talk about the construction of the albums themselves and not just the photography and inclusions since at least in the circles i tend to be in , that's really what's focused on in discussions .

I love the magazine and game box designs the most

newer digipacks by ZB1 and EVNNE are too big than the usual, that the cd flies out once opened. Digipacks made by SM and the ones that came out for IVE & TWICE are the correct size for a CD to sit well and fit perfectly to not fly out. ATEEZ digipacks are also great, considering how the cd has a nice pocket and the photobook, but the material they used are quite vulnerable to damage of the design...

Thanks so much for this video Maria, I look forward to it each year-end! Here’s to more innovative packaging designs in 2024 🎶

Young Posse's album was in a macaroni box which I thought was really cute and fitting

I don't buy albums for anyone other than my ult(nflying) anymore, but the worst packaging that I saw from my groups this year is by far Golden Child's Feel Me album😭 It's so flimsy and the pages aren't even binded together.... it just feels so cheap and underwhelming...

I was waiting since new year's for thisssss!!!!

oooh the boyz phantasy albums are so pretty!! i’m esp a big fan of the themed paperclip, i’d honestly use those in day to day life for girl groups, a 2023 packaging i wasn’t a fan of was fromis_9’s unlock my world - great music and photoshoots, but it looks unfinished because the spine looks like cardboard(?) style material glued together. very sturdy on a shelf though so there’s that. i’m a bit meh about sm’s new poster versions too. some of the designs, esp for aespa, are stunning but i hate how there’s nowhere to put the inclusions if you decide to put the poster up! so overall a bit of a downgrade from their normal jewel cases. i’m also unsure on aespa my world’s zine versions - i loveee the magazine style so much but i wish they were thicker like the blitzers album you showed in the video. red velvet’s new album is sooo stunning and i ended up caving and getting both a bag and package version, now i can’t wait for them to come in! design wise i’m also happy that ive got a huge upgrade with baddie - the different designs and typography for each photobook are so suited to the concept and so beautiful compared to their earlier albums hard agreed on how nice the box package is for zb1’s melting point!! i thought it was a nice touch to make each album version open differently too, with your version opening like a door and the others opening more like a book this is one of my favourite types of videos you do, i look forward to it every year and i loved this one ❤

I also loves the Guilty box from Taemin. Other favourites from mine were the New Jeans bag and the Red Velvet bag. I didn`t like the Stray Kids Rockstar version because it`s a book and everything falls out all the time. SM has the best album designs in Kpop. The only thing I don`t like from are the new poster versions. Now I even find the digipacks better and I really hate digipacks. And I also didn`t like the my world tabloid version from aespa. But the biggest pity with SM is still they only give one photocard. I also love Nemo albums or poca albums or Plve versions.😀

I’m going to buy a lot of albums soon but the ones I already received are Layover, Five star, rock star, and get up. Both straykids albums where designed really nice and I love them a lot. The inclusions, themes,and photo shoots for the albums are amazing and the inclusions are always very nice and I love them a lot, however, they don’t have any box or special packaging. (I’m not saying every album is like this, only five star and rock star. For example oddinary and noeasy have a special packaging.) Straykids is my ult so that’s the only thing I’m kind of disappointed about in these albums Layover by V (of bts) is such an amazing album. The packaging, design, CD, inclusions, everything is perfect! The new jeans album is very good too. It has a lot of inclusions, pretty designs, and is giving the perfect summer vibes.

The 8turn wallet being sold out everywhere makes me so sad i wanted it so bad! Really unique

wow the macarena was such a fun album

I don't have that version of NCT Golden Age myself but I have seen an unboxing of it where they put some of them together on the bolt because I don't think all of them fit onto one. It's a neat idea and I really don't mind the envelope/folder/letter style of packaging; I find it cute but that specific packaging is not my favorite in terms of overall size and the sticker to keep it closed is annoying. I think my favorite packaging of 2023 is The Boyz Phantasy series. The size is great, the slip case that opens on one side is great, the inclusions are kept safely separate to the album, and it's quite detailed in design pretty well. Though I will say Key's Good and Great album is my favorite in terms of overall creative design packaging and same with all of his releases so far.