Stappan Luxury Arctic Bacalao

Contagious

84 Commercial St, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 6LX, UK

Creative Agency: Contagious
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Packaging Content: Bacalao (dried and salted cod)
Packaging Material: Metal, textile
Location: United Kingdom

The preservation of centuries
Below Stappan Mountain, at the northern tip of the Norwegian coastline, lie the richest cod fishing grounds in the world.

Since 1945, this tough, remote location has been home to the Stappan factory. There, following an age-old Norwegian salting tradition, the North Export company takes the finest line-caught cod, fillets it by hand and buries it in pure ocean salt to create the delicacy, Luxury Arctic Bacalao.

Our task was to create packaging that would authentically tell the story of – and do justice to – this unique product, while ensuring the contents always arrived at its destination in perfect condition.

We first crafted a simple brand identity for Stappan Luxury Arctic Bacalao, drawing on ancient maritime and cartographic influences – complete with fascinating mythology around sea creatures and monsters.

To reflect the handcrafted expertise of the product, we commissioned a small group of craftspeople – including an illustrator, copywriter and calligrapher – to help bring the story to life in the most beautiful way. We also used cutting-edge plastic prototyping to perfect the size, shape, positioning of the typography and debossing of the cod illustration before committing to final tooling and production.

In total we produced 5,000 presentation tins, accompanied by a booklet that tells the tale of Stappan and its famous salted fish.