We are part of a time where the way that we live, move, and especially consume is undergoing considerable shifts. Influenced by the instant access to a multitude of choices and a world of information at our fingertips, we’ve also come to see an evolution in values and a growing awareness for our environment that is more conscious than ever before.
As innovators and designers, we understand that packaging plays as much a role in the consumer experience as it does in creating waste. Today, we also know that we have the power to answer to both consumer and environmental demands by challenging conventional packaging and developing alternatives that will one day become the norm. Replacing materials that threaten our planet and minimise waste, ultimately, lending a hand to shape a path towards a more sustainable future.
And so, we welcome you to The Paper Bottle Project, a collaborative platform between BillerudKorsnäs, Nine, multi-disciplinary experts in tech and leading Brand Partners of various categories that set out on an explorative journey to create a bio-based paper bottle solution that leaves a minimal to neutral environmental footprint for global benefit.
When approaching the design of our vision, our first challenge was to create a form that could appeal to a broad range of potential brand owners, and yet represent a unique visual language with characteristics that stay true to the origins of the material. Made of virgin pulp derived from the Scandinavian forests, the visual direction for the concept’s design as we like to say, was born from the woods.
Also keeping in mind that the new bottle shape should suit mass production and meet production restrictions we set out to explore shapes and forms that showcase how we can challenge the norm while keeping feasibility. Hence, we developed a structural and graphic language that embodies the natural harmony between material, design and manufacturing.
Taking inspiration from the patterns we find in nature, and more specifically those found in Spruce and Pine, two equally important elements of the bottle’s raw material, we designed a structural form that is as alluring to onlookers, as it is neutral to ‘would be’ product categories. Allowing potential brand owners to imagine a world where their brand plays a role in helping their consumers make a better choice for the environment.
As you gaze at the bottle’s silhouette notice how the Spruce’s most iconic characteristics, its branches and needles gently drape upon each other, creating an abstract representation of multi-angled layers within the bottle. Boasting a form that is proud and elegant, yet soft and welcoming, and crisp edges that lay on a bed of organic shapes, the Paper Bottle’s attention to detail and production is in every way as interconnected as in nature.
Taking one step further from form to graphics, it was only natural that the graphic language too be inspired by nature. However, when it came to develop an identity and graphic expression for the Paper Bottle we wanted to add a layer that honoured the man-made. Inspired by the close relationship between human and nature, and the way we archive the materials we borrow from nature, the graphic elements of the Paper bottle explores ‘grade stamps’- a system of symbols used in the forest industry to specify different pieces of lumber when trees are sawed, indicating the different types of products and ensuring the quality of materials. On Paper Bottle’s side you can find the bottle’s grade stamp highlighting the most important elements of the bottle, the maker, the material and the specs. The vision, is symbolized as an eternity icon on the cap, creating a direct link to the sustainable aspects of the concept.
For us, The Paper Bottle Project goes beyond a concept for a new packaging solution. An explorative journey on its own will, and an innovation that has brought together all actors in the value chain, The Paper Bottle Project’s design process has been driven by an understanding of the context in which we live in today, and where we envision it tomorrow. And as we continue to use design to challenge the conventional, to push for better solutions that are as good for consumers as they are kind to the planet, we hope to be a part in shaping a new era of consumption and production.
Designed By: Grow
Art Directors: Isabelle Dahlborg Lidström, Johan Bergman
Designers: Henrik Lundblad, Ed Martin, Johan Bergman
Manufacturers: BillerudKorsnäs / ecoXpac
Client: BillerudKorsnäs
Country: Sweden
