Five weeks of struggling resulted in this:
“You can not call yourself a true geisha until you can stop a man with the strike of a single look”.
The aim of this assignment was to create a package for a dish from a sushi restaurant. The sender was the exclusive restaurant Take Mikado were he offer traditional Japanese dishes of the best quality. The package hade to be made in cardboard from Iggesund and be sold in supermarkets around Sweden. Sounds like an easy assignment, huh? But it’s easier said then done.
We came up with this amazing idea: make a package that look like a geishas hair. So we started building different boxes trying to create shapes similar to hair. The boxes has been to big, to small, to round, to much paper.. you get the point. But finally we made it. And we are darn proud!
Sashimi
We chose to package six pieces of sashimi, thinly sliced, raw seafood. Sashimi often is the first course in a formal Japanese meal, but can also be the main course, presented with rice and Miso soup in separate bowls.
Target group
Our target group are between 20 and 40 years old. They are widely travelled and appreciate new flavors. They are social as well as cultural and like to try new things and wants to ad some luxury in their everyday life. They emphases the value of social networking and sees the meal as a chance to practice this.
Scenario
Sashimi is a fresh food so our intention is to store our package in the fish count along with other fresh delicacies. Mikados fresh food is an exclusive commodity and something we don’t think belong in the fast food shelf. Because of the fact that sashimi is fresh and has to be thrown away at the end of the day if is hasn’t been sold, we chose to just sent out a few packages to each selling place. We hop that this also will create a demand for the product when there is so few of the package and they are hard to get.
Creative idea
We want our package to be more than just a box, we want it to tell a story. Our entire package builds around this story.
To us, a geisha symbolize the culture of Japan. The word geisha literally means “art person” and that’s something we wanted to capture in our package. Not everyone has the possibility to get the attention of a geisha, similarly with the geisha not everyone have the possibility to eat daily fresh sashimi from Mikados restaurant. The restaurant has been associated with mystery because of it’s secluded position in the dark forest of the north of Sweden. We want our package to symbolize the same mystery…
The top of our package consist of semicircles to create the illusion of a beautiful hair arrangement, inspired by a geisha. The chopsticks that shuts the box symbolizes the hairpins that holds the hair, when you pull her pins out the hair gets released. When you open up our package, it has the shape of a flower, in order to draw parallels to Take Mikados logotype. The indide has a panel where the sashimi lays, this to create the feeling of the traditional bamboo plate, witch the dish normally rests on.
The ad – a world of paper
In our ad we once again wanted to play with the Japanese culture. To use origami felt like a very appropriate choice when it is an ancient Japanese art form where everything is made by hand. Just like sashimi. We build a scene of paper and made the package become the head of the geisha. The butterflies, the flowers, it’s all made of origami – all to create an illusion of a paper world.
You see her in the store. Her beautiful shapes immediately draws your attention and the mystery surrounding her makes it impossible for you to look away. You look at her and becomes aware of what’s inside the attractive exterior – you having sashimi for dinner.
Sincerly / Lina Enander & Malin Lundquist, Grapic Design and Communication – 08
