This year’s season’s greetings card from Iggesund Paperboard, is a mystical forest in the form of a pop-up shadow box with fine laser cut details and shimmering silver ink. Using the recipient’s mobile phone, it comes alive through a clever lightshow which mimics the magical illumination of the aurora borealis.
The theme, “Shine a light on the forest,” relates to the origin of Iggesund’s flagship product Invercote as well as the important role that sustainable forestry and fiber-based products can play in mitigating climate change. The concept was designed and created by Erik Hluchlan and Erin Fudge Smith at Structural Graphics, a print marketing agency with more than 40 years of experience when it comes to innovative packaging and print solutions.
Iggesund’s season’s greetings card has become somewhat of an annual challenge for designers to out-do the previous year’s card by showcasing the countless possibilities of the company’s paperboards, Invercote and Incada.
“Every year we wish the card to be eye-catching enough to earn its place on the recipient’s desk, or even on the mantelpiece at home. With this year’s card we also want to encourage people to put their phones away for a while,” says Jessica Tommila, Customer experience manager at Iggesund Paperboard. “We also want to show how much we value the long-lasting relationships we have with our customers and other friends in the packaging business,”
Structural Graphics, with its headquarters located in Essex, Connecticut, USA, works with paper and board in all forms to develop dimensional direct mail, interactive marketing materials that capture attention by “popping” to life, or intriguing designs that combine print with a digital element.
“My first thoughts on the assignment were about how lucky I was to have the opportunity to work on a project from Iggesund, as they have already produced so many amazing pieces,” says Erik Hluchan.
Advertisement
Hluchan’s idea was to create a magical forest scene pop-up in a darkened shadow box that could be illuminated from below by a mobile phone.
“Given the environmental theme of the project, a forest seemed obvious for a paperboard company. Iggesund by necessity needs to be a caretaker of forests,” says Hluchan, who went on to develop the greetings card with his colleague, art director Erin Fudge Smith.
The technically complicated greetings card placed a number of demands on the paperboard: It had to be opaque and have good foldability, while remaining rigid enough to maintain the form.
The material also needed to offer a higher quality of printability, according to Hluchan, who chose Invercote Creato 350 g/m2. “It is an excellent paper to work with when making pop-ups and it has the ability to withstand the high demands of dimensional paper engineering,” he says. “It is also able to handle a large number of print treatments including laser cutting.”
Invercote Creato is designed for both packaging and graphical applications. It offers equal, outstanding aesthetic printing properties on both sides. Both sides are fully coated and have a silk finish. Thanks to its composition of multiple layers of solid bleached primary fibres, Invercote Creato has a superior strength and toughness compared to board grades that contain mechanical or recycled fibres or even single-ply bleached primary fiber board.
Read more about the Iggesund Paperboard 2019 season’s greetings card at Iggesund.com/myforest
Advertisement
About Iggesund
Iggesund Paperboard is part of the Swedish forest industry group Holmen, one of the world’s 100 most sustainable companies listed on the United Nations Global Compact Index. Iggesund’s turnover is just over €500 million and its flagship product Invercote is sold in more than 100 countries. The company has two brand families, Invercote and Incada, both positioned at the high end of their respective segments. Since 2010 Iggesund has invested more than €380 million to increase its energy efficiency and reduce the fossil emissions from its production.
Iggesund and the Holmen Group report all their fossil carbon emissions to the Carbon Disclosure Project. The environmental data form an integral part of an annual report that complies with the Global Reporting Initiative’s highest level of sustainability reporting. Iggesund was founded as an iron mill in 1685, but has been making paperboard for more than 50 years. The two mills, in northern Sweden and northern England employ 1500 people.
Advertisement
Editorial Note: This press release was shared by a member of the Brand Experience magazine community using our Community Voice tool.
Our website community uses the tool to post articles, thought-leadership reports and analyses, white papers, case studies, blog entries and op-eds, press releases and events about branding, design or marketing. These posts are vetted and edited by our editorial staff for editorial relevance and decorum for branding, design and marketing professionals. Approved and edited content then lives side-by-side with other editorial content. Overtly promotional content is not accepted, but we do have advertising options available for those interested in promoting their services or products.
Do you want to become a contributing author to the BXP website? Click here to learn how you can become a contributing member of the BXP Magazine community.
