Project Overview
n*Bottle (pronounced eNd Bottle) is a start-up storage product company based in Hong Kong that designs and manufactures home storage and food containers using 100% plastic wastes. The key mission is to prevent single-use plastic from re-entering the ocean and exploring new creative applications for non-virgin materials. The brand identity was created to reflect upon urgent issues that is affecting our environment and aims to be one of the pioneering recycled plastic product brand in Asia, leading the charge of future generations.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Director: Calvin Lai
Project manager: Piean Wong
Copywriter: Piean Wong, Amber Wai
Marketing Director: Matt Cheung, Amber Wai
Designer: Ariel Tsai
Project Brief
In Hong Kong, only 1% of all plastic bottles (PET) were recycled in 2019 and 2020, Things have gotten worse since China, hosting the world’s largest recycling facilities, banned the import of plastic waste in 2017. The plastic waste that we have been shipping out to China to get sorted and processed for decades has nowhere to go. They will now end up in incinerators or landfills, or for the worse, developed countries have been paying developing countries such as Malaysia to dump them in their countries. The plastic disaster has intricate impacts for the long haul. Considering the wide potential and urgent environmental issues that have been neglected for decades in Asia, n*Bottle needed a brand identity to accelerate positive change within a dysfunctional local recycling system and help the targeted market audience make informed choices about the product they purchase. The brief was to create a collection of communication designs to widen the conversation and grow the movement that would appeal to all generations across Asia and beyond.
Project Innovation/Need
Storytelling and symbolic elements inspired by both cultural and environmental aspects were the key approaches to facilitate consumer-brand identification and strengthen the brand’s emotional connections. The primary colour orange, in many societies, is associated with religions and for many in Asia evokes images of spirituality and reincarnation. Recycling plastic is essentially a form of reincarnation, which facilitates the consumers’ subconscious connections to assimilate these ideas together. Inspired by our fragile ocean, the bottle silhouette embedded in the letters ’n’ and ‘B’ with a symbol of a wave evokes our polluted environment and what the company's products are made from, responding to the aspiration of the brand ‘ Don’t end our planet, n*Bottle’, with a minimal and playful approach.
Design Challenge
The logo had to meet its core purpose of storytelling and addressing an environmental issue that draws the attention of the target audience towards a concern. The n*Bottle scope spanned every aspect from the brand identity, style guide, social media kit, iconography and choice of packaging and brochure material. Immersing ourselves in sustainability throughout the design process and ensuring every decision aligns with the brand's purpose to encourage the audience to feel good about doing good. With a goal to build an effective visual and verbal identity system, the design process of the logo, collaterals and marketing campaigns has been through different stages of evolution in order to demonstrate its bold commitment to environmental actions that embrace both cultural and environmental aspects. The 'eco-friendly' colour themes such as green and blue were also avoided to differentiate the new brand from the existing eco-conscious brands in the market, instead, using a high-energy primary colour of orange exercises caution that embodies a bold voice for change.
Effectiveness
Launched in 1/11/2022, n*Bottle has been well received in Hong Kong by the target consumer audience and potential retail clients. The brand saw an increase in donations through their website and has participated in local sustainable events and festivals. The marketing campaigns are frequently shared by consumers on social media and reach a wider demographic audience. There is now evidence of other brands in Asia beginning to follow in the footsteps of the zero-plastic n*Bottle movement.
Graphic Design - Identity and Branding - Food
This award celebrates creative and innovative design in the traditional or digital visual representation of ideas and messages. Consideration given to clarity of communication and the matching information style to audience.
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