Responses by Bruketa&Žinić&Grey.
Background: The task was to design professional athlete and businesswoman Donna Vekić’s luxury home fragrance brand and packaging to stand out in the market and tie them with their famous and successful namesake.
Design thinking: The DNNA brand reflects Donna’s personality and inspirational story about her journey to success. True success never happens overnight, which is why blood, sweat and tears constitute an integral part of it. There is no either/or—only the duality showing those nice and not-so-nice moments and making the most out of all sides of our personality. That is how this brand is positioned as well: two sides of the same coin, the ups and downs every success story is filled with. The duality that lies at the heart of this brand is also featured in the packaging design: the steel globe used as a candle snuffer is a symbol of tennis and strength, whereas the fragile glass vessel stands for tenderness.
Challenges: The creation of a box lets the customer see, touch and smell the product while safely placing the product inside to avoid it falling out and preventing the steel globe from damaging the fragile glass vessel during transport.
Favorite details: Given the meticulousness behind this brand and the opportunity we had to work on its design from the very beginning, we are proud that we managed to integrate duality as the underlying idea of every detail. Packaging is always a challenge, so we are proud of our success despite technical obstacles and constraints. As far as the packaging is concerned, dualism is manifested in the combination of contrasting shapes (a cone and sphere) and material characteristics (glass and metal.) We used typographic product labeling and an obtrusively large brand story while having everything packed and enclosed within a box that is, in fact, open.
New lessons: In such a complex project as DNNA was, every step we took toward the finished product—while solving obstacles on our way—taught us that there is always a solution that enables us to pursue our creative idea relentlessly. We also learned a lot about bees from the Kopački Rit Nature Park, especially how we can help them and the exceptional value of beeswax.
Specific project demands: The client gave us free rein, which was wonderful but also came with great responsibility. It is clear that each segment of work on every project usually has certain limitations; however, a clearly set creative goal, as well as the support and trust of the client, helped the product come into being in the best possible way. That helped us when we were looking for the best solutions while choosing sustainable materials. We used natural, biodegradable and recyclable materials; in the end, we were satisfied with the outcome, even though it was hard to find a solution for a natural wick that would last as long as it should. Cored, square, flat, wooden—you name it; we had a go at them all.
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