It Is Not Black and White, So the Black Box is Red

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter  05/18/2012

May 17, 2012-All hell broke loose on Tuesday night when Iggesund opened its latest Black Box – which was red. This may be something of an exaggeration, but the sixth black box in Iggesund Paperboard's challenge to designers – the Black Box Project – is certainly creating a huge amount of interest. Designer, Jeff Nishinaka, combined Greek mythology and Japanese tradition to create his own version of Pandora's Box, along with the creatures that emerge from it – ‘sculpted' from Iggesund's Invercote paperboard. In Greek mythology, Pandora was created as the first woman, and Nishinaka chose to make the box red because in Japan, the homeland of his ancestors, the colour red stands for womankind. Pandora's curiosity led her to open the box and unleash the evils that plague mankind – represented in the form of legendary creatures. "The main thing I wanted to achieve was the illusion of movement in these animals to give them a kind of life of their own," Nishinaka said. Nishinaka describes himself a paper sculptor and works exclusively with paper-based materials. "I think paper in its purest form takes the subject to another level," he added. "It always inspires me to see how white paper strips away any preconceived ideas of what something should look like." Nishinaka's red Black Box and his sculpture, presented as a triptych, was unveiled at an exhibition in Milan. The exhibition included also the previous boxes produced within the project. Iggesund's Black Box Project is not like a traditional advertising campaign in which the client expresses detailed wishes and closely supervises the outcome. The only stipulation is that the participating designers must work with Invercote and create something that reflects their own distinctiveness and Invercote's possibilities. "We're looking for creative minds who really push the limits of what can be done with Invercote," said Carlo Einarsson, director market communications at Iggesund Paperboard. "In a world where the choice of materials for a design project is unfortunately often a matter of habit, it's important for us to showcase the extra possibilities Invercote offers designers to fully realise their creative ambitions." The Black Box Project has previously exhibited in Paris, London, Amsterdam, New York, Stockholm and Hamburg. Most recently the designer and illustrator Sebastian Onufszak contributed a film about life as a closed circle. The film was shown using a video player integrated into a black paperboard box. The other Black Box contributors and exhibitors in Milan were the Dutch firm of van Heertum Design; Landor, Paris; Brunazzi & Associati, of Turin; and New York-based Marc Benhamou. After Milan there are plans for the Black Box project to continue on to Moscow and Tokyo within the next year.Enditem