tre•tea (Concept)

Designer: Natalia Bivol
Project Type: Concept
Location: San Francisco, USA

The goal of the project was to experiment with contrasting elements: simple shapes and intricate illustration detailing. Effortless outside and sophisticated inside.

From technical point of view everything gravitates around the strongest geometric figure, the equilateral triangle. The tea box represents a triangular prism that contains three special sections inside, where tea bags (with three different flavors) are nestled. By pulling the tab at the top, you can access the product. The triangular prism requires less material, thus minimal expenses. Multiple boxes can be easily stored one along the other into a tessellated composition. The packaging is designed to be printed on recycled paper to enhance the natural and earthy feel of the product.

Three birds illustrated on the sides of the box depict a figurative representation of each of the three flavors (white, tropical and black tea). Highly detailed and whimsical creatures are assembled from countless feathers cut from a number of photographs from my personal archive. By contrast, the design of the brand and the logo is deliberately clean and simple, although playful. The name tre•tea derives from the concept of the project: the word tre means three in italian. Three are the letters that it contains, three are the flavors of the tea, three are the sides of the dominant packaging shape.

The logo is intentionally designed in lowercase to evoke a human and honest feeling, without being too invasive, while the feminine LiSong Pro Light delivers an artistic airy effect, such as in poetry. The dot placed symmetrically between the words tre and tea symbolizes the point of balance and harmony that a cup of good tea could bring. It also invite us to slow down, stop for a moment, relax and enjoy...