Silver Packaging Design · 2022
No48 Fragrance Diffuser
by Nicolas Boon and Tatiana Garcia
- A' Design Award 2022 Silver Winner in Packaging Design
- Awarded April 15, 2022
- CLIENT: Omecara
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 28,749
- Verification code 3A34761DCD · Verify this award
About No48 Fragrance Diffuser
The Omecara studio has defined a shape that evokes polished amber or a pebble found on the seashore, thus breaking with the traditional image of ambergris. The shape was designed to evoke solid and liquid, land and sea. The identity is characterized by the number 48, a lettering where the masculine square 4 and the feminine rounded 8 complement each other. The typographic treatment gives an impression of restful lightness, while the gold-colored hot stamping, in the same shade as the perfume, associates container and content. A subtle play of opposites and duality.
Tatiana & Nicolas Boon's Fragrance Diffuser presents a distinguished example of contemporary packaging design wherein form, material, and graphic identity converge to communicate multisensory luxury before the product's olfactory dimension is ever experienced. The design demonstrates sophisticated understanding of how visual language translates to anticipated sensory pleasure, employing warm amber tones that suggest botanical richness, honeyed sweetness, and the precious quality of natural essences captured in glass. The biomorphic graphic element appearing on both bottle and box functions as a signature motif, its organic fluidity suggesting the invisible movement of scent through space while its asymmetrical form resists the mechanical precision that might distance the product from nature's irregularities. This curvilinear abstraction, rendered in contrasting black on the amber vessel and lustrous gold on the white packaging, creates immediate visual recognition while allowing chromatic variation to distinguish the product hierarchy within what may constitute a broader collection. The typographic treatment maintains admirable restraint, with the alphanumeric designation presented in a considered arrangement that suggests both scientific precision and artisanal numbering systems, inviting associations with perfumery traditions wherein formulations receive numerical rather than evocative names. The material palette achieves sophisticated dialogue between transparency and opacity, warmth and coolness, organic curves and geometric structure, each element serving both functional and communicative purposes. The glass vessel's traditional apothecary silhouette connects the product to historical lineages of botanical preparation and aromatic compounding, while contemporary graphic intervention ensures the design speaks to present sensibilities. One might observe how the composition of elements creates narrative anticipation, the sealed boxes promising contained experience while the open vessel with its emerging reeds suggests active diffusion. How might the interplay between containment and release, between visual warmth and actual fragrance, shape our understanding of scent as both seen and unseen presence within domestic spaces?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The No48 fragrance diffuser combines style and discretion, offering an intense amber fragrance that diffuses through the single black wooden stick. The Omecara studio has created an identity characterised by the number 48, a lettering where the masculine square 4 and the feminine rounded 8 complement each other. The typographic treatment gives a sensation of restful lightness, while the golden hot stamping in the same shade as the perfume delicately combines container and content. The colours of the glass bottle are the opposite of the colour palette used for the packaging.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Limited Edition, Packaging: Width 80mm x Depth 80mm x Height 210mm, Bottle: Width 75mm x Depth 75mm x Height 115 mm, 250ml
- Tags
- Duality, Elegant, Minimalist, Harmonious, Delicate, Feminine/Masculine
- Production Technology
- Black screen printing on glass, paper: Colorplan white frost paper 350 g/m2, intense black offset printing and Luxor 232 MP hot stamping, protective varnish
- Design Challenge
- The complexity of this project stems from the fact that the opposites had to be harmoniously combined within the same composition. The precision of the gold hot stamping on the edge of the packaging demanded a high degree of technical skill, it had to be precise without cracking or damaging and create a perfect fit. The packaging had to reflect a certain level of sophistication while being extremely simple.
- Project Duration
- November 2020 in Luxembourg
- Operation Flow
- To reinforce the conceptual value of the duality, the golden shape embraces the edge of the packaging in a balanced way. Presented side by side, the packages create a harmonious scenography reconstituting the golden pebble. The chromatic harmony of gold, intense black and white creates a soothing and precise composition.
- Research
- The Omecara studio has synthesised two natural elements mysteriously linked by their names: ambergris, an animal raw material used in perfumery, and yellow amber, an ornamental resin that owes its name to the Arabic word "anbar", which designates ambergris. The relevance of the project results from a play between opposites: land/sea, masculine/feminine, square/round, solid/liquid, container/content, black/white.
- Inspiration
- The synthesis of ambergris and yellow amber has resulted in a delicate abstract form that evokes polished amber or a pebble found by the sea, breaking with the traditional image of ambergris. The shape has been carefully designed to evoke solid and liquid, land and sea. The chromatic choice of gold was obvious, embodying on the one hand the colour of amber and on the other the symbolic value of ambergris. The minimalist typographic composition evokes the Zen garden and gives a feeling of lightness and relaxation. A subtle play of opposites and duality.
- Image Credits
- Photographer Tatiana Garcia 2020
- Patents
- Omecara Sarl 2021
Colors of No48 Fragrance Diffuser
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Multidisciplinary Brand and Packaging Design
We create sophisticated brand identities and packaging that balance aesthetic elegance with conceptual depth. Our interdisciplinary approach combines graphic design, art direction, and strategic thinking to craft solutions that tell compelling stories. International A' Design Award winners.
G0E3 ShopDesign Interview about No48 Fragrance Diffuser
The main inspiration is the synthesis of ambergris and yellow amber which has resulted in a delicate abstract form that evokes polished amber or a pebble found by the sea, breaking with the traditional image of ambergris. The shape has been carefully designed to evoke solid and liquid, land and sea. The chromatic choice of gold was obvious, embodying both the colour of amber and the symbolic value of ambergris. The minimalist typographic composition evokes the Zen garden and gives a feeling of lightness and relaxation. A subtle play of opposites and duality.
We wanted to bring together two natural elements mysteriously linked by their names: ambergris, an animal raw material used in perfumery, and yellow amber, an ornamental resin named after the Arabic word "anbar", which means ambergris. We wanted the design to give a feeling of restful lightness and to be a play of opposites: earth/sea, solid/liquid, masculine/feminine, square/round, container/contained, black/white. We also wanted to find this duality in the side-by-side presentation of two packages that reconstitute the golden pebble in its entirety. The identity characterised by the choice of the number 48 reinforced this notion, thanks to the lettering where the square masculine 4 and the rounded feminine 8 complement each other. All these suggestive dualities subtly reinforce the balance between the elements.
As this was a limited edition order, there will be no follow-up to this project.
However, we may launch a new limited edition in the near future.
However, we may launch a new limited edition in the near future.
Between research, design and production we took two months for this work.
The client wanted to develop an ultra minimalistic graphic identity and fragrance diffuser. They gave us very few creative constraints to develop the brand, the packaging and the conceptual aspect which gave us the necessary creative freedom but was perhaps the most difficult part of the project.
This project was produced and used by another company.
The intuition.
No, but I must admit that the Japanese gardens inspired us for the layout.
This work targets a very wide audience. This product is intended for the interior and is therefore aimed at both companies and private customers.
I think that this concept stands out thanks to its minimalism, the absence of overkill and the strength of its suggestive, symbolic and metaphorical values.
As a typographer, we were looking for a name whose meaning could unite the masculine and feminine. The number 48 was the ideal candidate, the masculine square 4 and the feminine rounded 8 complemented each other perfectly and made it possible to fit them both into a square when designing the typeface. It symbolically opposed masculine (square) and feminine (round) shapes.
First we wrote down all the key words we wanted to evoke. Once the concept was defined we made a lot of drawings of the pebble to find the shape that would evoke both solid and liquid. The shape cut in two by the fold had to give the best balance on both sides of the box. The lettering and the typographic layout were designed with the same concern for balance and lightness. For the production files we worked with InDesign and Illustrator.
I think the unique aspect of design is the balance of the composition. Even if the duality is present for each element, it is the composition that gives it its refinement, like a Japanese garden where each element is in its place.
My wife and I work together, she contributed to the development of this work.
The technical difficulty of this project lay in the fact that the hot stamping had to be placed on the edge without the shape being damaged by the paper fold.
The analytical research focused mainly on the shape of the pebble, and the rounded forms that a liquid can adopt. The shape chosen had to evoke both the solid and the liquid, the earth and the sea, to bring together the two elements of our choice, amber (resin) and ambergris (animal product). Many drawings were useful before finding a shape that attracted the eye and had the necessary suggestive qualities.
When working with very few graphic elements, as is the case with our packaging, the main challenges are the proportions of the elements between them and the balance of the composition. Nothing should be superfluous.
It was because of the many positive comments about the product that we decided to enter the international design competition. But it was my wife who took the decision and initiated the initiative.