Packaging

THINKING INSIDE THE BOX – A CREATIVE CHALLENGE

Tuesday 30. November 2010 - Ideas come and go, but sometimes the magic happens, when inspiration and production meet and a figment of imagination is turned into something tangible, into something that touches our heart and soul, that brings joy into our minds or impresses us by the ingenuity that has brought the unimaginable into the real world.

Creativity, the ability to generate innovative ideas and bring them from thought into reality, meets Invercote in the latest campaign from Swedish premium paperboard producer Iggesund. The idea behind this campaign is actually quite simple: What will happen if you give a designer a tool with which he or she can do whatever they like? The only condition being that they make use of the unique properties of Invercote.
Several designers or design teams with a proven track record experience in developing and producing complex packaging and print projects were contacted. The first two of these design projects was presented to the public on Nov. 23 at an event at the Cercle Suedois/Swedish Club in conjunction with the famous Les Places d’Or design and luxury packaging exhibition in Paris.
Van Heertum Design VHD, Tilburg, Netherlands, has been impressing clients and colleagues all over the world since 1971 with packaging designs that leave a lasting impression. The international design teams, under the management of Frans van Heertum, Creative Director, and Annemarie de Brouwer, Art Director, are looking into what it takes to be Dutch, down to the smallest detail. Their designs go through gravure, offset, flexo, screen printing and many other post-printing processes until you will be able to experience the astonishing result.
But why are they doing this? “The elimination of frustration at the start of the physical production phase has become part of our mission statements” Frans answers to this question,” or, to put it more bluntly, you have probably experienced it all: designs that looks spectacular on colour screens and glossy colour prints, but turn out to be a disappointment in the production process.” Van Heertum Design is frequently asked to manage international innovation projects to optimise challenging production processes. The knowledge gained from these trouble-shooting journeys is firmly engrained within the whole Van Heertum Design agency, resulting in a very special project handling process.
The result of both Van Heertum’s experience and their unique network of world-class production specialist companies will be one of the showpieces unveiled in Paris.
Maureen Baroni, Stephane Quezel, Jason Little, Rob Evers and their team at Landor, Paris, France, turn today’s world upside down. Instead of moving the real world into a virtual representation, like it is happening everywhere in this digitalized world, they are well ahead of the current trend. They are moving pixels back in the real world.
Encompassing conceptual ideas like Rubicubism’s or Mondrian’s constructivistic view of the world, they are making it “hip to be square” in an ingenious approach, virtually real, reestablishing analogue in an increasingly digital world. After discussing the basic concept, Jason Little, Creative Director, created a challenge within the organisation: to come up with individual interpretations of the framework established in that idea. At the same time, Stephane Quezel and Maureen Baroni developed a 3D construction to make the virtual real again. The outcome is mind-boggling, stunning and truly global, both in thinking and in execution.
– This is of course a challenge to the creative skills of the designers and design teams who are participating. But their ideas are also a challenge to Invercote, because we have asked them to really take it to the limit, says Carlo Einarsson, Director Market Communications at Iggesund.
– The starting point of all these ideas is a simple sheet of Invercote, presenting nothing but a projection screen for ideas, thought up by professionals who know what they want. I’m truly happy for the enthusiasm with which all the designers and teams have approached this task, and I’m expecting the results to be breathtaking, he concludes.