ETERNELLE: Sustainable Innovation & Luxury with Mycelium
To pursue luxury is an innate human desire. Up until today, it has been defined in the design world through classic materials like wood, metals, glass, leather, etc. This is also known as old-luxury.
But the 21st century has started to redefine luxury by adding more defining characteristics to its definition like – sustainability, longer product life cycles, clever material use, implementation of recycled alternatives, and innovative new eco-materials, recyclability to name a few.
Eternelle is an award-winning eco-product design that implements the 21st-century definitions and brightest the gap between sustainability and luxury.
- Company:
- MUSE Design
- Award:
- Gold Medal
- Date:
- 02 Feb, 2020
The Brief
Create a luxury product and packaging design that implements recycled, renewable or innovative new eco-materials to create a luxury aesthetic and feel.
The product must be tailored for the premium cosmetics sector. More specifically the anti-aging group of luxury treatments.
Our Idea
Develop a product and packaging concept that:
- Implements Innovative Mycelium Composites
- Uses Recycled Old Luxury Materials
- Uses Minimal Amounts of Plastic
- Is Designed for Disassembly for easy recycling
Our Services
We started the project by conducting extensive desktop research to identify how luxury is communicated in the premium anti-aging cosmetics sector.
After this, we launched a concept design phase where we explored various geometries based on real-world inspiration gathered from natural sources through sketches, 3D geometry exploration, and brainstorming.
Finally, we chose the winning concept and refined it further by creating a thematic eco-packaging solution and adding graphics and attributes to polish the design further.
- Design Research
- Sustainable Product Design
- Eco Packaging Design
- Additional Graphics & details Dev
The Challenge
Firstly, sustainability and luxury do not always go hand in hand. Eco-products have an imperfect aesthetic that clashes with the established standards of luxury. So the first major challenge would be to overcome this obstacle. Secondly, new innovative eco-materials and more standard recycled or renewable ones have compatibility issues that need to be addressed to ensure a good fit between all elements when creating a multi-element solution.
The Inspiration
The design is based on the Japanese premium melon industry. One melon can cost up to 25 000$ as the fruit is meticulously taken care of during its whole growth process to ensure absolute purity and perfection through meticulous care and an eye for detail.
The Japanese melon is an undisputed symbol of the human pursuit of luxury & perfection. Something that resonates with the premium beauty and cosmetics industry.
Main Container
The main container is created from three main elements that work together in harmony and translate the principles of eco-design – a mycelium base, a recycled messing top, and a cartridge made of minimal amounts of plastic as it has no structural functions.
Contrast plays a huge role to create a feeling of luxury as the rough mycelial base clashes with the smooth recycled messing top. The organic shape of the Japanese premium melon was used as a guideline when creating the organic contours of this product. The set consists of the main body and a refill pack that houses all serums necessary for the anti-aging treatment plan.
Refill Pack
The refill pack contains four refillable containers for the full anti-aging serum program and a special premium case made of mycelium and recycled messing.
The container walls are made of a minimal amount of plastic to ensure a safe and certified container for the anti-age cerum liquid while mitigating the use of the material. This is possible as the cartridge does not have any structural functions in the design. The four cartridges come prepacked in a carry case that can be used to get and store additional sets of anti-aging serum.
At the end of its life, the messing components are easily disassembled and recycled in the appropriate recycling stream, while the mycelium can be composted at home.
Disassembly
The design is optimized to be disassembled easily to ensure the recyclability of all components.
The mycelium body is created by two identical elements that house the refill container and keep the serum at a steady temperature due to their thermal protective characteristics.
The container inside fits snugly between the two mycelium components.
The top messing cap connects to the internal container via a push-and-click mechanism that allows for a quick and safe connection. The internal container presses against the two mycelium halves locking them in place until the top is removed.
“ Sustainability is a journey. Every subsequent design must be more environmentally and economically viable than the last. Only then can we move towards a truly sustainable future. ”
