Created by Linéa Design, Human is a project using artisanally made fine art paper for a rendering that embodies both purity and simplicity.
Linéa Design developed Human, a “second skin” packaging concept for bottles in partnership with 16th-century paper mill Le Moulin du Verger in the France’s. Charente region. “With Human, we wanted to use ancestral craftsmanship to come up with the packaging of the future,” explains Karine Lagarde, manager of the agency specialized in wines and spirits.
Along with this focus on crafts, eco-responsibility and local production were also criteria for the project. “With these elements in mind, everything converged towards this concept,” notes Lagarde. Human is surprising in its simplicity: a 100% paper coating is applied wet and sheathes one or more parts of the container—the base of the bottle, as a label or even as an over-cap. “Thanks to the moisture and the starch in the paper, it adheres to the glass and shapes to the contours of the bottle.” No glue is necessary as the material sticks to the glass when dry.
The paper used (made by craftsmen at the Moulin du Verger) is the result of a 100% circular production method as it is made of vegetal fibers from vintage linen sheets. Having been washed for years “the old-fashioned way”, the fabric is not denatured by chemicals. The sheets are torn, ground with a millstone and then sifted, resulting in paper that is rough both in its visual and tactile aspects—a good fit with the current craft trend.
Paper weight can vary from fine to thick. The sheets of paper are transported while still humid to a partner in the Charente region who places them manually on full bottles. The paper sheathes can be decorated using several techniques including embossing, watercoloring and pad printing. Human is Linéa’s third and latest in-house design project; the agency has already worked on a range of glass paste bottles and more recently developed a stock collection in porcelain.
Human
Designer: Linéa Design
Raw material (paper): Le Moulin du Verger
Target markets: wines, spirits, fragrance
Materials: paper, glass
This article originally appeared in our sister publication Formes de Luxe.
