Iggesund Challenges Designers to Improve Product Packaging

    IGGESUND, SWEDEN, February 05, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Iggesund Paperboard, a leading producer of high quality virgin fiber paperboard for use in the premium packaging and graphics sectors, today announced it is collaborating with American creative crowdsourcing company crowdSPRING to challenge the world's designers to improve existing consumer packaging.

"Every day we are bombarded with examples of packaging that could be improved by a better choice of materials or a better design," explains Staffan Sjöberg, who is overseeing the crowdsourcing project at Iggesund Paperboard. "Now we're giving designers worldwide the chance to contribute their ideas on how to replace packaging made of glass, plastic or metal with solutions that use paperboard."

He stresses that Iggesund is not looking for inexpensive ideas which can be put into commercial use. Instead, the aim is to get a picture of how global designers believe they can steer packaging development in a more sustainable direction.

"We will not claim any commercial rights to the ideas," Sjöberg says. "We're just interested in getting a snapshot of how designers believe they can improve the consumer packaging they see in the shops they visit on a daily basis. We want to publish the ideas and maybe reproduce some of them in physical form."

For Crowdspring the collaboration with Iggesund Paperboard is an unusual project. Normally Buyers post their creative projects, name their own price and watch as creatives submit their ideas. In the end, the buyer picks the one they like the best and owns the right to the graphic, web or industrial design or copywriting. The crowdSPRING model offers buyers choices up-front - actual designs to choose from, instead of bids or proposals.

"This is a unique project that aligns nicely with our commitment to doing business with integrity while at the same time fostering creativity with designers all over the world," comments Mike Samson, co-founder of crowdSPRING."We believe the combination of sustainability and innovative thinking will attract many of the thousands of designers from crowdSPRING's creative community."

Iggesund Paperboard is part of the Swedish forest industry group Holmen, one of the world's 100 most sustainable industrial companies according to the UN Global Compact Index. Iggesund's annual turnover is close to SEK 5bn (EUR 525m) and its flagship product Invercote is sold in over 100 countries.

The company has two product families, Invercote and Incada, which are both among the quality leaders in their segment. Since 2010 Iggesund has invested SEK 3.3bn (EUR 346m) to increase the energy efficiency and reduce the fossil carbon emissions from its paperboard mills. The investments have made both mills almost self-sufficient in electricity.

Iggesund and the Holmen Group report their fossil carbon emissions to the international Carbon Disclosure Project and are on the project's A List, which singles out almost 200 companies world wide for their work against climate change. The two companies' environmental data are integrated into their annual reports, which are produced in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative's highest level of sustainability accounting.

To learn more about Iggesund's creative crowdsourcing project, visit: http://www.crowdspring.com/packaging-design/project/2383690_the-packaging-of-tomorrow-redesign-a-package/details.

About Holmen
Holmen is a forest industry group that manufactures printing paper, paperboard and sawn timber and runs forestry and energy production operations. In 2013 Holmen's net sales were approx. SEK 16 billion and the group has approx. 3,700 employees. Holmen's shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm, Large Cap. For more information, visit http://www.holmen.com.

About crowdSPRING
crowdSPRING is an online marketplace for custom logo design, web design, graphic design, industrial design and writing services. Entrepreneurs and small businesses simply post what they need, when they need it and how much they want to pay. Once posted, more than 166,700 creatives from 200+ countries around the world submit an average of 152 options for the buyer to choose from until they find "the one." crowdSPRING is a privately held company based in Chicago. For more information, visit http://www.crowdspring.com. To learn more about the world of small business, startups, design, marketing and business strategy, follow crowdSPRING's blog, their Twitter stream or their Facebook page.

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