STORY
A story of what we leave behind
We throw away so much garbage these days that it can make anyone, anywhere getting ready to apologize to mother earth. We have a climate debate that is more topical than ever and just one single household in Sweden throws away around 1,5 tons of garbage each single year. DUDE wants to play a part in the resistance movement.
Knowing packaging and wrapping paper is one of the greater villains in the environmental struggle, I felt it was on my table to act. I decided to create a giftbag you can actually use again and again for multiple purposes. Just move me DUDE
Our packaging material are from sustainable woods and the leather we use, source from excess materials as much as possible. My values goes way back and has become even more important when becoming a mother myself. I was born and raised the first years in Bollebygd, a municipality that very early on started to make the inhabitants aware of the environment. I believe we can gain that approach very early on.
Do you want a sustainable environment? Give a sustainable gift.
A story of past and future presents
“On my ninth birthday, I got a pair of sneakers from my grandmother. Green, with white strings – just what I’d wished for. I wore them all the time, even to parties, and I felt like the coolest kid in town.”
Pretty soon I grew out of my green sneakers and got a new favorite color. But I kept the shoebox. I covered it with pretty stickers and kept my eraser collection inside it.
When my childhood home was put up for sale many years later, I found my old treasure hidden away in a closet. I gave the eraser collection to my nephews, but I kept the shoebox. You see, my grandmother’s 90th birthday is coming up soon, and I need a suitable gift box. I’m getting her a new pair of gloves. Green ones – just what she’s wished for.
P.S. Good presents deserve great wrapping. And the best kind of wrapping will keep on keepin’ on. Just like my shoebox. Just like Dude.
A story of a creative child fulfilling a dream
I was born with the pencil in my hands and have enjoyed creating and drawing for as long as I can recall. The windows based back-in-the-days program Paint was my ally and enabled a whole new way to create worlds and contexts, before the digital era made its entrance into our living rooms. My path had been traced out already then, I knew I wanted to be an interior designer and I feel joy every time I see the similarities in the work I put in creating the brand DUDE.
Through schools of arts and design I got to know packing design and I felt an urge to work with my hands in a three-dimensional manor. As a graphic designer and AD I love seeing colors and shapes be brought to life, and I saw a great potential experience just that within packaging design. My entrepreneurial orientation was pulling me in one direction and I traveled the world because I knew it was mine to conquer.
I remember specifically an eyeopening experience when I was attending an internship program in Castle Franco Venetto, Italy. There was a little bureau, not bigger than engaging 4-5 people day in and day out. This inspiring company that even small in size holding great worldwide brands in its portfolio. It was then I knew – somewhere it all begins and you don’t need a multi international company to do so.
I was studying role models as Lisa Bengtsson as Stig Lindberg. I could sit for hours just watching Lisas black and white drawings. The way she hold the neat pencil, the way she managed to bring patterns to life on delicate plates. As for Stig I was so impressed with his work within the field of graphic design. This was what I wanted to do and I though I knew just how to do it. A seed was starting to grow.
One beautiful day in June 2014 Chloe made her way to us. My beautiful firstborn daughter. I started like many mom entrepreneurs nursing the seed that had beginning to grow. What legacy do I wish to leave behind? Is it time to follow my dream and use my combined skills within the packaging design field. It was. Time.
In November 2015 I started sketching at the brand and my first products for DUDE came out in February 2016. It was one of my proudest yet scariest moments. The art of gift wrapping had got a whole new role in the market and our modern, aware consumer is today purchasing with multiple senses. The customer is concerned about the environment, as are DUDE and the customer sees the value of both giving and keep. My first launch of the Dudies ELSA, RUT, MAX and BOSSE was an immediate success. I could see the reaction of all people coming tp know the brand. It was here to stay.
My vision for DUDE is great and always changing. Expanding the assortment meeting new markets and new customers but an I know one thing for sure. My vision includes a wish that a DUDE product is dressing the gift table on all parties. The party of that creative child fulfilling his/her dream just like I did.
/Caroline
(Founder and Designer at DUDE Packaging)