Inspired

Simon John

Ergo

What inspired us? I use the word ‘us’, as it really was a team effort of Matt, Paul and Melissa, the client, who provided inspiration along the way, to make Eye Smile the squidgy object that it is today.

The original inspiration came from two sources. I wish I could say they were the beauty of a Henry Moore sculpture or the colour of the Monterey Aquarium, but the simple fact is that we were inspired by a rubber duck, an ordinary bright yellow rubber duck (one, admittedly, minus its head, so that we could see how it was made) and a pebble, which I think came from the beach at Beer.

What we were trying to do was to develop packaging that would imitate the tactile quality of the product – a gel-filled, soft, plastic, cooling eye mask, for weary travellers or those looking for relief from a hangover.

I was looking to create a shape that was smooth and irregular, with a soft and squidgy finish. But it also needed to be rigid enough to stand up on-shelf – which is where the duck came in handy. The result is a playful shape that is hard to put down.