Héctor Serrano – Raíces (Roots)

Héctor Serrano, National Design Award winner, and we might say friend and colleague, invited us to play our part in his project, Raíces (Roots).

For this project, Héctor collected 85 roots found on beaches following the October 2024 floods to turn them into vases to hold flowers and cuttings to be later transplanted into soil. A fitting metaphor for the reconstruction that the locals have had to undertake with their destroyed homes. Replanting, in order to grow again.

There is one vase for each town affected by the floods, and the proceeds of each will be used to raise funds to help rebuild the area and support those affected who are fighting to recover their roots.
The roots needed to be sent to their new homes, so sustainable yet elegant packaging was required to protect these charitable designs.

Structural Design. The materials chosen for this packaging had to be in harmony with the goal behind such a charitable initiative. Therefore, it had to be sustainable, contain no extra plastic elements, and be as simple as possible so that the user experience could stir emotions and complement that moment of reflection on the meaning and goal of this project.

As a result, the structural design is based on a container where, through an easy but secure opening, the user accesses the pieces and discovers them little by little. Additionally, double-wall (EB-flute) cardboard was used to ensure there would be no damage during the vase’s journey to its new home. This provides sufficient robustness for any unforeseen issues during delivery.

The appearance also had to be subdued, elegant, and sustainable. With this choice of material and structure, functional and convenient cases were achieved, both in terms of assembly—as they require no glue points—and for unpacking.

Graphic design. For this project, we designed the labels to accompany the packaging. These served several purposes, as they identified the specific vase model inside while also acting as a seal and, therefore, a security tag. We wanted them to follow simple, elegant lines, in keeping with the rest of the project.

Production management. In this case, we handled the production management of the boxes and labels; this ensured everything was produced according to the instructions as we had conceived, designed, and presented to Héctor.