World of VEEN

This simple task was all we gave to our Brand Director Antti Eklund. We thought it was that simple. Well, it isn´t. Once you know how it just looks easy. 

Tomi Grönfors: Why did you create over 200 designs for a single bottle?

Antti Eklund: I didn´t. Did I? I guess I did. But I didn´t even see it, it was so much fun! Of course you saw it more clearly 

since you had to comment on all of them. Thanks for that! 

TG: What made it so difficult? 

AE: Designing for yourself. You make your own brief, you create your own schedule, budget, everything. It´s a lot easier for a client with a million restrictions. Here the sky was the limit, and it didn´t even stop there! 

TG: Too much creative freedom? 

AE: Not really, just that everything is possible. Even the impossible. I´ve always thrived on the edges. I love projects with difficult clients and lots of restrictions. I also love “white paper”, which is frightening for many. These both need enormous amounts of creativity and give me a lot of energy. 

TG: The process was fairly quick anyway, wasn´t it? 

AE: Well the whole project of starting VEEN and creating the bottle and the brand and everything only took a few months. That is only possible through passion, energizing everyone around you as well. I think we have a dream team for that with you, Ville and me. We´ve been extremely lucky with all the people we have run 

into during this whole process. 

TG: Yes, like Michael Mascha, Katriina Sajalinna, Rolf Nygård and Thomas Koy just to mention a few. 

AE: Yes, they are all fabulous! 

TG: Do you remember meeting Thomas for the first time? 

AE: Yes I do. That was in Holzminden, at the O-I glass plant there. We had come to an e-mail impasse, my impossible wasn´t possible for Thomas. Well, it ended up that Thomas was right, and his suggestions to solve our bottlnecks vere well pointed and made the bottle even better. 

TG: Yes, he reminded us of your meeting when we went to fetch the first batch of bottles from Germany. He said “I´m pissed off with you guys, but I love you.” 

AE: Yes, that´s the nicest thing! Thomas is a great guy. The truth is that it is important to meet face to face and make things happen. You can only go so far via e-mail. 

TG: When was the first time you knew that this will work out? 

AE: After the first discussion with you and Ville the day after the original idea. I knew that we can make this happen. But the first real concrete evidence that nailed the success of this project was seeing the first “wrinkled” real glass bottle from O-I. It was so sympathetic! 

TG: Yes, that was exhilarating! 

AE: At that point we had tons of beautiful and real looking CAD images of the bottle, a working web store and everything. But nothing beats the first concrete object. 

TG: So how did you feel when you received the “Best Bottle in Glass” award 2007 by bottledwaterworld in Mexico City 13th of September, just three weeks after the official launch in Helsinki? 

AE: It was great of course! I knew we had the best water on the planet, all we had to do is put it in the best bottle in the world! Just kidding. But I did want to design a classic, and now I think we are on the right track. What I really think is that this award is the best way of saying thank you to all those wonderful people that have helped us on the way. Without them we couldn´t have made it happen. Thank you! 

TG: So what´s next? 

AE: We´ll just have to continue developing VEEN as a whole, the product, the bottle, the brand, sales, production, logistics, availability, desire, marketing, the works. This was only the beginning, this is where the fun starts! Although I never had so much fun as we have had so far already. 

TG: Me neither. 

VEEN Talk interviews highlighting the connoisseurs of water. Talk the talk, walk the walk.