PUSHING THE ENVELOPE IN PACKAGING, THESE THREE CASE STUDIES DESERVE A TOAST
Packaging can be a shallow temptress, a triumph of style over substance. But it also can be the definition of industrial design, merging technology and creativity into an elegant whole. Veuve Clicquot achieves the latter with DesignBox, its new 100-percent recyclable, micro-corrugated coffret for the company’s Yellow Label Champagne. To debut the chic sheath, the company asked Tom Dixon, Front and 5.5 Designers to use it as a building block for a Champagne moment that reflected the maison’s storied roots. The results, unveiled in Milan at April’s Out of the Box exhibit, were as inventive as they were unexpected.
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Packaging can be a shallow temptress, a triumph of style over substance. But it also can be the definition of industrial design, merging technology and creativity into an elegant whole. Veuve Clicquot achieves the latter with DesignBox, its new 100-percent recyclable, micro-corrugated coffret for the company’s Yellow Label Champagne. To debut the chic sheath, the company asked Tom Dixon, Front and 5.5 Designers to use it as a building block for a Champagne moment that reflected the maison’s storied roots. The results, unveiled in Milan at April’s Out of the Box exhibit, were as inventive as they were unexpected.
“T’was a tough brief,” says Dixon of the task. “It was difficult to understand how to change a piece of packaging into something that was to be associated with such an up-market product.” His cluster of orb-shaped Comet lamps, fashioned from deconstructed boxes, is a lesson in history and geometry. The paper pendants allude to the comet seen throughout the Champagne region in 1811—an exceptional year for vintages—which gave birth to the six-pointed star on Veuve Clicquot’s logo.
The cheeky designers of Paris’ 5.5 used the challenge to prompt consumers to reevaluate the wrapping’s worth. “Packaging is getting more elaborate, but is still disposable,” the group says. “We thought it was a pity to see all those nice boxes ending up in the trash can.” Their solution transforms the yellow-and-black coffrets as bricks for a lacquered MDF wine cellar and tasting space. Front’s effort takes a similar tack. Replicating the boxes in wood, the Swedish foursome amassed them on a bed of soft foam, allowing each to move up and down independently, cradling the user’s body. “We took advantage of the fact that people recognize the box, are aware of its purpose and know how it feels to hold it,” they say. So they created a form with the opposite sensation of what was anticipated.
The DesignBox has been put into circulation worldwide and will eventually become the default sheath for all of the label’s non-vintage offerings. In the meantime, Out of the Box will continue to travel, appearing at the London Design Festival this month, Japan’s Tokyo Hipsters Club in October and Hong Kong’s Business of Design Week in December. Veuve Clicquot president and CEO Cecile Bonnefond says the company was thrilled with the exhibit’s results: “The designers complemented each other well, in their work and in their auras.” Much like the trio of grapes in fine Champagne, you could say.
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