BIC skill-developing packaging

2020-08-28 –

BIC is a family-owned company and world market leader in stationery products, lighters and razors. Their simple yet inventive, high quality and reliable products have been available to anyone, anywhere, anytime for over 75 years, providing instant solutions to everyday needs.

‘Writing the future, together.’ BIC’s environmental tagline perfectly reflects its sustainability aspirations. Recognising the benefits offered by cardboard packaging, the company approached our development team with two requests, the first being for interactive, skill-building stationery packaging.

We designed a compact, bag-shaped colouring pack with a friendly, bright look. The wide slot at the top helps portability while also allowing the pack to be hung on a euro hook. The two variants of this 12 felt-tip pen set each contain a themed cardboard scene to colour and glue. One set also includes 6 glitter glues to encourage further creative embellishment. These additional contents enable little ones to get started with their pens straight away, rather than searching for paper or a suitable book. Also tucked inside the set are inserts containing perforated push-out characters, ready to populate their play scene – a puppet theatre or airport.

Environmental awareness is important for BIC, which is why they selected recycled GD2 cardboard for this packaging. The printed scenes and characters needed greater quality and clarity, so these inserts were made from GC2 material.

 

BIC’s second request was to find a way to bring the brand to life remotely as online ordering becomes increasingly popular. To avoid creating unnecessary waste, our solution was to design a branded solution that doubled as a transport carton. We printed the corrugated cardboard packaging only on the inside, so it looked like typical brown e-commerce packaging at first glance. Designed to fit through a mailbox, the box opens easily with a simple perforated tear strip. And that’s where the excitement begins…opening the box reveals the unmistakeable orange brand colour of BIC. The cardboard insert holding the special multi-coloured ballpoint pens in place can be re-used: it can be coloured and personalised, or turned into a pencil holder.

Both box and insert are made from a single sheet of 100% recycled F-flute GD2 cardboard. As the boxes are filled by hand, designers took pains to ensure that all fold points were simple, logical and fast, without needing any glue. The final seal is achieved using pre-applied double-sided adhesive, typical of e-commerce packaging solutions.