Each month we ask a corporate member of the Art Directors Club to share some industry news with the greater ADC community. This month, Iggesund Paperboard had us sit down with Market Communications Director, Carlo Einarsson, to talk about their new ‘Black Box’ design challenge and NYC event coming up in on Monday, May 16.

Iggesund has already made a name for itself in the high-end cosmetic industry – what are you now trying to offer designers and advertisers?

In a single sentence I would say ‘Designer Freedom’. Imagine not having to worry whether your brand extension or say product launch will be a success or not. We all know how important packaging is and the possibility to offer our customers a sort of assurance that from a packaging point of view the fine elements of seduction are in place. Invercote is a fine substrate that really invites you to test the boundaries of what is possible.

Why are you moving into the industry, what interests you?

Our business is to make the finest consumer packaging material there is. To offer international trademark owners a substrate which will create opportunities to make their brands stand out even stronger and Invercote is such a product. If you want something extra in terms of print, extra converting and shape the product performs beautifully.

Tell me a little about the Black Box design project

We felt that ‘Think inside the box’ would be a provocative theme because most designers strive to add a different perspective than that of their client. So far we’ve seen an impressive display of creativity – proving that limitations in terms of physical format place absolutely no limits on designers’ freedom of thought.

Have you seen any interesting submissions to it already? Who are some of the participating designers?

Well, in Paris we introduced who made a beautiful flower from one single sheet of paper. The Landor group in Paris (with good cooperation from all Landor offices worldwide) made a single pixel as a symbol of virtual reality and the bases for all imagery communication.

The third designer to take on the Black Box challenge was the Italian designer Ada Brunazzi. Her masterpiece went on stage in London at Stationers’ Hall in mid March. Her contribution to the project was to illustrate the Italian way of Living! In the centre are of course the kitchen and the family. The sumptuous cooking coupled with a celebration of life and why not a meal of pasta and a bottle of good Italian wine. The kitchen was filled with pots and pans and why not a colander made from Invercote!

Carlo Einarsson

What is the May event in New York going to be like?

We will be presenting Mr. Marc Benhamou at The Milk House on 16 May (5pm-10pm). Marc started his career at Vogue, where his innovative work earned him many awards. He moved on to work as Senior Vice President, Global Creative Director for some of the most prestigious cosmetics brands, such as Estee Lauder, Lancome, and numerous other designer brands. Marc has an exceptional talent, to develop concepts into true images of beauty, really simplicity at its best… I think it will be a fantastic show in New York and you will be amazed by Marc’s work.

Tell me about Iggesund’s approach to working with designers to create new products. Do you have any good stories?

It was quite cool to realize that the Landor group actually broke the rules and went outside the box to make big size pictures consisting of boxes/pixels and mounted close to 5,000 boxes/pixels together to display 3×3 meter size art objects! You will get to see some of the in New York on the 16th.

Has the digital revolution shifted your focus at all? What has the effect been on the kinds of products your clients order?

We find the digital movement very exciting. It complements ‘traditional’ printing very well. For certain application areas speed and versatility is absolute key. This is not to say that other printing techniques are not, the contrary, they all blend well and are all needed. Every technique as such is developing extremely quickly.

What size projects do you usually work on?

Size and volume have traditionally been of less importance to us. We are aiming for the difficult and demanding jobs and that’s a daily challenge but that’s also when Invercote really shines.

I know Iggesund has a presence at some of the conventions and paper shows – what’s your favorite?

The more targeted a show is the better. We are quite focused in our communication.

Complete the sentence: “If you think inside the box….”

… someone will always ask you to do the opposite. We try to be different and turning things around is usually more exciting and I think there is a little rebel in all of us.