Produced at Holmen Board and Paper’s Workington Mill in the UK, Incada is used primarily for pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food applications. “Incada has built a phenomenal reputation for its runnability and performance at full speed with hardly any waste,” says Laura Marshalsea, Sales Director Packaging, Holmen Board and Paper. “It has a fully coated printing surface that creates all kinds of design possibilities, and meets the highest hygiene standards necessary for food packaging.”
As well as its technical properties, Incada also has an inspiring back story, particularly when it comes to sustainability. “Sustainability is at the top of the agenda for many of our customers,” says Marshalsea. “So the Workington Mill, with its biomass boiler and provision of excess green energy to the UK national grid, is a very important part of the Incada story.”
“Incada offers customers value that goes beyond the paperboard itself,” Marshalsea adds. “This includes our sustainable production and the trust customers have in their relationships with us. It’s about the extra services we provide, the openness we provide to our facilities, the fibres from our forests and the life cycle and circularity of our materials. These are the things that make up the essence of the product. It’s the total picture.”
Responsibility, trust, passion and consistency To showcase these non-physical elements of Incada, the Holmen team collaborated with KDV Design Studio and GBGT Box to develop an interactive sales toolkit. “Holmen wanted something inspirational to drive discussions with brand owners around the holistic offering behind Incada,” says Kristina De Verdier, Design Director at KDV. “They wanted to make the intangible tangible.”
A crucial element of the design process was a series of interviews with Incada sales teams. “These teams actually meet the brand owners, and through these interviews, we better understood the nuances of what end customers want,” De Verdier says.
The final design consists of a box which opens like a booklet, revealing compartments inside. One side contains two fans with technical samples of different Incada grammages and specifications. De Verdier describes the other side as the “inspirational compartment” with a holistic story. This consists of bundles of cards centred on four key themes: responsibility, trust, passion and consistency.
“Each theme represents an aspect of Incada that brings tangible and non-tangible value to customers,” says De Verdier. “Responsibility is about delivering on sustainability goals. Trust is about the functional aspects, such as the foldability of the material and the technical support from Holmen. Passion represents emotional benefits, such as the tactile experience with material effects and the personal service you get from Holmen. And consistency is about runnability, colour consistency, and always delivering on quality.”
Functional and attractiveThe structural design of the sales kits was made by GBGT Box, who also produced it. “This was a comprehensive project,” says Amanda Bertilsson, Packaging Designer at GBGT Box. “The toolkit consists of many different parts, effects, and techniques, which involve many areas of production. We had to find solutions to ensure it all worked in production, and which ultimately provided a really nice unboxing experience for the end-user too.”
The effects included foils, embosses, debosses, and cut-outs to show the material's capability. Incorporating material effects allowed the kit to emphasise the key elements of Incada. For instance, embossing created a tactile and emotional connection, while the use of the reverse side of Incada, with its uncoated surface, provided a natural look and feel. The kit also has a minimal design overall to accentuate the sustainability aspect, which is central to Holmen’s DNA.
Marshalsea hopes the new Incada sales toolkit will inspire customers. “It shows what’s behind the product and the brand, and hopefully, it will open minds about the benefits that can be gained from using Incada and inspire new projects and applications.”
“It captures the essence of the product, the journey and the story into one toolkit. But it is also like a piece of art,” she adds. “It’s both functional and attractive. So when we give it to customers, I hope they think of it as a lasting gift and keep it on the shelf to remind them of Holmen and Incada.”
Facts - All in Incada
- The Incada sales toolkit is made of different grammages of Incada Exel, which is particularly suitable for large machine-erected cartons.
- The fans include samples of all the available grammages of Incada Exel and Incada Silk, which is designed for quality packaging and graphic design applications.
- The bundles of cards in the inspirational compartment are made from Incada Silk and Incada Exel.