Mumbai: Open Strategy and Design, the Mumbai-based independent brand design consultancy, is the only Indian design agency to win at the prestigious Dieline Packaging Awards 2021, a global award platform that recognizes the best in packaging design from across the world. Their work for Unsaid Library, a precious gifting brand based in Europe, won the award in the Luxury category.
The idea of Unsaid Library is a precious jewelry gifting brand, like no other. Tapping into a deep understanding of human relationships Open Strategy and Design led the task of designing the brand and its experience to help people express what if often left unsaid. Packaging, therefore, was key to delivering on this ambition. It had to be designed as the site of the magic. The pack had to make the gift feel personal, not something bought off-the-shelf.
Commenting on the win, Ashutosh Karkhanis, Creative Head, Open Strategy and Design said, “Our gifts are beautiful time-travel machines. With the packaging, we wanted to design the moment of revelation in a manner that emotionally moved the receiver. The unboxing was designed as an experience for the gift to come alive layer by layer, with an emotionally charged personal message leading the way. This win at the Dieline award is thrilling, even more so because we won for creating a deep experience in a category that tends to obsess with craft.”
Ankit Mehta, CEO, Walking Tree – the Mumbai-based group behind the brand said, “We imagined Unsaid as a chronicler of human relationships, bound by the art of gifting. We have worked closely with OPEN to develop the brand over the last couple of years, and to see the work find both commercial and critical global acclaim is very gratifying.”
Awards were judged across five categories—creativity, marketability, innovation, execution, and on-pack branding, ultimately going through two rounds of rigorous critique and appraisal. Founded in the year 2007, the Dieline Awards felicitate the best consumer product packaging and design globally, thereby raising awareness around the enormous value of packaging design and branding. In 2021, Dieline awards received nearly 1,600 entries, the maximum number of entries ever received. The jurors included the who’s who from the global design world, including luminaries like Design Matters’ host Debbie Millman, Design Army co-founder and CCO Pum Lefebure, A Plastic Planet’s Sian Sutherland, amongst others.
