Delpasand Black Tea Box

Delpasand Black Tea Box

Delpasand Black Tea Box is an award-winning packaging design solution developed for the presentation and retail distribution of premium tea products, specifically created to house both Ceylon and Iranian tea varieties within a cohesive visual identity system that employs illustrative storytelling as its primary communicative strategy. Designed by Mohammadreza Eslamparast and completed between April and May 2022 in Tehran, Iran, this packaging design exemplifies contemporary approaches to cultural representation in commercial packaging through its sophisticated integration of geographical symbolism and narrative illustration techniques. The design addresses the fundamental challenge of differentiating multiple tea varieties on retail shelves while maintaining brand coherence through a distinctive black background that references the natural color of dried tea leaves, upon which vibrant, culturally specific illustrations are rendered to communicate origin and variety. The packaging measures 120 millimeters in width, 80 millimeters in depth, and 200 millimeters in height, providing adequate volume for tea storage while maintaining shelf-efficient proportions suitable for contemporary retail environments. The illustrative approach employed in Delpasand Black Tea Box centers on the symbolic representation of tea-producing regions through culturally resonant imagery, with Ceylon tea varieties distinguished by illustrations incorporating elephants, temples, tea farms, and farmers that evoke the Sri Lankan landscape and cultural heritage, while Iranian tea varieties feature imagery specific to Iranian agricultural traditions and regional characteristics. This differentiation strategy extends to the color palette, where sharp, contrasting colors are strategically deployed across the product line to facilitate rapid consumer identification and selection at point of purchase, addressing the cognitive demands of contemporary retail environments where visual distinction directly influences purchasing decisions. The production methodology employs offset printing on cardboard substrate utilizing a five-color process combining CMYK with an additional Pantone color specific to each design variant, enhanced through ultraviolet coating and embossing techniques that introduce tactile dimensionality to the packaging surface, thereby engaging multiple sensory modalities in the consumer experience. The central visual motif of a teapot serves as both a universal symbol of tea consumption and hot beverage preparation while simultaneously functioning as a compositional framework within which detailed narrative illustrations unfold, creating what the designer characterizes as a story-like quality intended to establish emotional connection with consumers. The design development process incorporated approximately ten days of market research examining existing tea packaging solutions to identify opportunities for differentiation, ultimately leading to the strategic decision to employ flattened illustration styles in contrast to the photographic approaches prevalent among competing products. The technical challenge of incorporating numerous objects, characters, and color variations within the confined space of the teapot illustration on the packaging surface required sophisticated compositional planning and illustrative skill, demonstrating the designer's capacity for visual organization and narrative compression. Delpasand Black Tea Box represents a synthesis of traditional illustration techniques with contemporary packaging design principles, reflecting broader trends in the packaging industry toward narrative-driven design that seeks to establish emotional resonance and cultural authenticity rather than relying solely on product photography or minimalist abstraction. The design accommodates two primary tea categories, Ceylon and Iranian, with the Ceylon category further subdivided into aromatic and original varieties, necessitating a visual system capable of communicating these hierarchical distinctions while maintaining overall brand unity. The friendly, approachable character of the illustration style serves to democratize what might otherwise be perceived as premium or exclusive products, making specialty teas accessible to broader consumer demographics through visual language that emphasizes storytelling and cultural heritage over luxury positioning. The packaging was developed as a commissioned work for Delpasand, a tea company established in 1980 in Lahijan, located in northern Iran, a region recognized as Iran's primary tea-producing area and home to the country's most extensive and highest-quality tea plantations, with the company maintaining operations in both domestic Iranian tea production and international tea importation from Sri Lanka, positioning it within both local and global tea supply chains. The design's recognition with an Iron A' Design Award in the Packaging Design category in 2025 acknowledges its successful integration of professional design standards, creative execution, and practical innovation in addressing real-world commercial packaging challenges. The Iron A' Design Award designation recognizes designs that demonstrate solid understanding of design principles, practical innovation, and contributions to their respective fields through solutions that improve quality of life, with awarded works expected to exhibit high specialization, expert understanding, and creative capacity while integrating industry best practices and competent technical characteristics. The award evaluation considered multiple criteria including innovation in packaging, functional efficiency, aesthetic appeal, material choice, user convenience, brand identity reflection, market competitiveness, cultural relevance, originality, technical excellence, and information clarity, among other factors essential to comprehensive packaging design assessment. Delpasand Black Tea Box exemplifies how contemporary packaging design functions as a multidimensional communication medium that simultaneously addresses practical requirements of product protection and information delivery while serving as a vehicle for cultural expression, brand differentiation, and emotional engagement, demonstrating the expanded role of packaging in contemporary commercial contexts where visual communication increasingly determines market success and consumer loyalty.

Black tea packaging, illustrated packaging design, cultural symbolism in design, Ceylon tea branding, Iranian tea packaging, narrative-driven packaging

— Adam Dawson

CITATION : "Adam Dawson. 'Delpasand Black Tea Box.' Design+Encyclopedia. https://design-encyclopedia.com/define/delpasand-black-tea-box?E=483755 (Accessed on October 14, 2026)"