As part of Arctic Paper Grycksbo’s development of packaging materials, a design project was undertaken with the Swedish graphic design school, Broby Grafiska. The results yielded a range of innovative packaging solutions showing the applications possible when using AP-Tec Pack, a fully bleached and coated solid board.
Broby Grafiska, in Sunne, Sweden, is a well established post-secondary school that combines theoretical and practical studies in close cooperation with employers and industry. Each year 116 students are admitted, mainly to the graphic communications, packaging design and packaging production management study programmes. The packaging design students regularly take part in different design competitions and have won many awards.
“When we had reached a certain point in our development work of AP-Tec Pack, we had the idea for a design project with Broby Grafiska,” says Jaana Ahlroos, Product Manager Coated Papers at Arctic Paper. “They are well-known for their packaging design programme, so it was a logical step to ask one of their classes to challenge the capabilities of our new board in a design project.”
The task was to create packaging for an appealing cosmetic kit using 250 g/m2 AP-Tec Pack. When creating the different packaging, the students were asked to put the material to the test to see what could be achieved in terms of design and printability, and hence the attraction on the shop shelves. “Natural Personal Care” was the theme to be kept in mind.
“The students had a great deal of freedom to chose a cosmetic product and create an appealing package while at the same time challenging the material physically,” says Mats Olsson, design teacher at Broby Grafiska. “The packages were created using ArtiosCAD software from Esko, and printed on either a UV printer or a laser printer. The printed sheets were cut in a Kongsberg XL20 sample maker and put together manually, some with glue and some without.
“My students really showed a great dedication to the project with Arctic Paper Grycksbo. They were able to test the limits of a new packaging material and learn how it differed in performance to traditional layered boards. In their evaluation of AP-Tec Pack they said that this board material came out better than expected and its flexibility facilitated their creativity. The coated surface, as expected, gave very good print results irrespective of printing method. The overall conclusion was that AP-Tec Pack is an ideal material for small cartons,” Mats Olsson ends.
