How Goods’ reimagined Tekla’s packaging with a crisp envelope case that’s kinder to the environment

At Goods, an ethically-driven packaging design studio, all design solutions are led by ideas of sustainability and circularity. So when homeware brand Tekla reached out to the team to reimagine the packaging system for their bedding collection, Goods went back to the drawing board to craft a direction that would not only use materials that are kinder to the environment, but would also redefine the very notion of luxury. What began as a refinement of Tekla’s classic, heavy-weight white boxes soon changed course in response to the research and insights from interviews with the brand’s wholesale partners, and a keen study of their supply chain. As the research progressed, the challenge revealed itself – Tekla’s bedding items are sold individually, allowing their customers to mix different colours of pillowcases and duvets, for example. As most orders contained multiple products, each of which were packaged individually, receiving a single order with multiple premium, heavy-weight boxes could often feel overwhelming for the customer. “This led us to rethink the meaning of ‘premium’ in this context,” explains Design Lead Camille M. Sauvé. To counter the many challenges while not compromising on the sense of craftsmanship and luxury that’s synonymous with Tekla, Goods designed a light, yet equally effective envelope case, minimalistically punctuated by the wordmark. Paptic – a packaging material made of renewable wood fibres – emerged as the material of choice, and the overall list of materials were whittled down from eight to just three. “There were many facets to the definition of the best solution – factors like common order combinations, responsibility and recyclability, cost, transport, availability of materials, and weight and handling come into play, to guide the end result. In this context, in addition to these considerations, the emotional nature of the bespoke envelope made sense to a brand like Tekla,” notes M. Sauvé.