Etos Diapers

Because Etos is a diaper brand that's helping combat the industry's notoriously terrible sustainability measures, it only made sense that they would want packaging that was equally as sustainable as their products. With help from branding agency Superunion, Etos' packaging is made from 100% renewable, recycled craft paper, and the soft colors and animal illustrations keep the packaging both effortless and delicate. Etos is taking sustainability by storm in a category that needs a lot of help.

Disposable diapers are notorious polluters. So when leading Dutch pharmacy chain Etos introduced a new generation of eco- friendly diapers, the potential impact (UN SDG 12) was enormous. They asked us to create radically sustainable packaging that could appeal to the socially and environmentally progressive parents they targeted. 

Every step matters, this was our design point of departure. Because what’s true for babies is also true for the planet. The major step we took was to defy the diaper category norm by replacing plastic packaging entirely with recycled craft paper. We complemented craft paper’s renewable properties with a minimalist design, a natural palette, unadorned color coding and hand-drawn illustration. The child-friendly animal ambassadors dierentiate each life stage. Featured on the packaging and the diapers themselves, these animals promote interaction between parent and child. 

100% renewable recycled craft paper is a radical departure from the diaper norm. The challenge was craft paper’s utter lack of softness, which dees the category’s traditional softness. For a target group familiar with organic packaging, however, it was not a complete unknown. Another major challenge was that craft paper printing techniques remain quite rudimentary. To manufacture our packaging required adopting a printing technique used predominantly in stamping potato packages. The soft, natural color palette and illustrative style were purposely created for craft paper. 

Disposable diapers produce millions of tons of waste each year. Etos has created a category changer. Everything about the packaging – its color coding, illustrations and tactile fragility – are an honest reection on the current state of the environment. Visually and tactically, the packaging presents Etos as part of the solution, not the problem. Because when it comes to diapers, every step matters.