Bronze Giftware Design · 2025
Charlene 10 Years Gift Box
- A' Design Award 2025 Bronze Winner in Giftware Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: Charlene Classic
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 26,410
- Verification code E7A6A36C87 · Verify this award
About Charlene 10 Years Gift Box
Charlene 10 Years is a commemorative gift box created for the tenth anniversary exhibition of a jewellery brand. The box takes the form of a fan case and measures 260 by 95 by 40 millimetres. An opening structure recalls a window, echoing an earlier exhibition theme. The exhibition theme is embossed in green on the surface, and the brand slogan is embossed in silver on the lid. Inside are a main volume, a supplement, a bamboo fan in a white box, a paper invitation and a bamboo painting card. The supplement uses traditional accordion binding and unfolds to ten metres.
Within the refined tradition of commemorative packaging design, Hanyun Gu's Charlene 10 Years Gift Box achieves notable synthesis between functional container and ceremonial object, positioning itself within contemporary practices that elevate ephemeral packaging materials to the status of keepsake artifacts worthy of preservation beyond their utilitarian moment. The ensemble participates in the sophisticated visual language of luxury brand presentation systems while demonstrating particular restraint in its chromatic strategy, anchoring the entire composition around a singular saturated emerald green deployed as accent rather than ground, creating memorable visual identity through strategic limitation rather than proliferation of color. This approach suggests engagement with modernist design principles that privilege essential form and material honesty, perhaps drawing upon midcentury Scandinavian traditions that found beauty in reduction and precision, or Japanese aesthetic philosophies such as ma—the meaningful void—and kanso—simplicity without ornament—that celebrate what remains after unnecessary elements have been removed. The compositional achievement lies substantially in the orchestration of spatial relationships among the varied elements: the primary gift box establishing hierarchical dominance through scale and positioning; the companion cloth-bound volume suggesting narrative dimension and archival intention; and the supporting printed materials providing informational layering and textural variation without visual competition. The chromatic sophistication merits particular attention, as the selected emerald hue operates simultaneously as visual anchor, luxury signifier, and potential symbolic carrier—green traditionally associated with growth, renewal, vitality, and in certain contexts prosperity or good fortune, making it conceptually appropriate for commemorating organizational or personal milestones. The material vocabulary demonstrates technical facility across multiple production processes: die-cutting achieving precise geometric form, hot-stamping or foil application creating lustrous contrast against matte grounds, embossing or debossing adding subtle dimensional relief, and cloth binding techniques borrowed from bookbinding traditions elevating humble cardboard substrates into tactile luxury. The botanical motifs appearing on certain elements introduce organic counterpoint to the rigorously geometric primary forms, suggesting perhaps the natural growth metaphor implicit in anniversary marking—the passage of time measured through cycles of renewal rather than mere linear accumulation. Thematically, the work appears to explore the intersection between commemoration and presentation, asking how material objects might carry temporal significance and emotional weight beyond their immediate functional purpose. The ensemble invites consideration of how design can transform routine commercial transactions into ceremonial exchanges, how packaging might transcend disposability to become artifact, and how visual and material refinement can invest everyday objects with dignity and lasting value. One might contemplate how such thoughtful integration of form, material, color, and symbolic resonance contributes to the construction of meaningful rituals around giving, receiving, and marking the passage of shared time.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The elegant name for a fan, "Ren Feng," implies the virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness, as well as the elegance of poetry, music, and odes. This concept serves as the creative theme for Charlene Classic and represents a unique emotional symbol used to interpret the values shared by the brand and its users. They are using jewelry as a medium to promote Chinese culture and supreme philosophical wisdom.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Size: 260*95*40mm.
We designed a book box in the shape of a fan case with the theme of "Benevolent Breeze Presented in a Box". It adopts an opening structure like a window (qǐ yǒu), echoing the brand's first exhibition theme of "Opening the Window to Admire the Splendor". Inside the white fan box is a green all-bamboo fan. The supplement is in the traditional Chinese accordion binding and unfolds to be as long as 10 meters. - Tags
- Oriental aesthetics, reading experience, book design, cultural dissemination, bamboo, painting scroll
- Production Technology
- While retaining the traditional form of paper invitations, the designer uses a fan as the main invitation for the event. The fan can not only represent the sentiment and taste of the fan holder, but also be used as a token to convey emotions. It will also be an exhibition souvenir. The designer takes the "Wonders of Xiao and Xiang" by Mi Youren, a painter of the Southern Song Dynasty, as the design concept of the entire set of books - summarizing the ancients' evaluations of this painting into four sections and carefully arranging the reading experience after opening the book box according to this structure. In the book case are the main volume, the supplement, the bamboo fan and box, the paper invitation and the bamboo painting card. Readers create an atmosphere of the poetic home of Eastern literati step by step through the rich changes in craftsmanship, materials and different papers during reading.
- Design Challenge
- The core of design is to convey "The Benevolent Breeze Spreads" and show the "elegant charm" of the Orient. We conceived from two aspects.
Outside: "Benevolent Breeze Presented in a Box". In research, we found ancient people used fine fan cases. We set the album theme as this and designed a book box like a fan case. For the structure, inspired by the brand name "Xuan" (meaning window), we added an opening structure for a window-opening feel, responding to the 2017 exhibition theme. Hoping Charlene keeps spreading Eastern culture.
Inside: "Spreading the Elegant Way". We suggest using a fan as the main invitation while keeping paper invitations. A bamboo fan, implying "there is bamboo at the origin", corresponds to two series. We want materials inside to draw on traditional Chinese binding forms. Albums, cards, and invitations should convey oriental charm through printing and paper texture. Overall, we aim to show the elegance of the Orient through design. - Project Duration
- In July 2023, it started in Beijing. The project ended in October 2023. In November 2023, it was exhibited in Shanghai, Beijing and London in succession.
- Operation Flow
- It appears in the form of a commemorative gift box in the exhibition. It helps the on-site audience better understand the brand story, history and development, and get to know the brand products more quickly.
- Research
- How to convey the brand concept with the "Benevolent Breeze Series" as the core in the tenth anniversary exhibition is the focus of the design. In the first round of proposals, we took "The Benevolent Breeze Spreads¹" as the thinking direction of the design. Among them, "Benevolent Breeze" implies the meanings of "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust; elegance, poetry, music, and praise." "Spreads" represents dissemination and promotion. We hope that through design, we can express Charlene's vision of spreading Eastern culture to the world like "The Benevolent Breeze Spreads." In addition, we also hope that when people receive this set of books, they can receive a strong breath of Eastern culture.
- Inspiration
- We designed a book box in the shape of a fan case with the theme "Ren Feng Presented in a Box." The structure mimics an open window, echoing the theme of the brand's first exhibition, "Open Xuan to View the Splendor." The book box's surface features the exhibition theme "Bamboo Shadows and Elegant Fans Presented by Xuan" embossed in green, with the brand's slogan embossed in silver on the left side of the lid.
- Image Credits
- Photography: Xinlong Zhang, Yunpeng Fu, Shasha Lu
Post-production: Xinlong Zhang, Yunpeng Fu, Shasha Lu
Picture: CHARLENE High Jewellery Workshop
Imperial Palace Fan Collection Design: Carina Yen, Jason Koo, Yuan He
Bamboo Fan Collection Design: Yuan He, Yingwan Sun, Hanshu Lai
Video: CHARLENE High Jewellery Workshop
Colors of Charlene 10 Years Gift Box
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