From pilsner to plasma — A book documenting the renovation of Octapharmas new office building in an old brewery.

Brief

Concept

Result

Involved —

Art Direction
Illustration
Photography

Octapharma are one of Europes largest producers of blood plasma. They had taken over the neighbouring building, an old brewery and were venturing on a complete renovation of it. Our three year mission required documenting the build, and collating all our material along with a history of the building into a book.

We always look to tell stories within our designs and inspiration for the design of this book came from a single, last of it’s kind, glass bottle which still contained the original dry plasma. The label consisted of so many different elements that we then translated into elements we used throughout the book.

The final book was presented to residents in the neighbourhood in order to reassure them that Octapharma were doing a ‘good thing’. The book itself documented the extensive yet sensitive restoration whilst serving as a platform to celebrate the history of the building.

The original bottle provided all we needed for inspiration for the book.

With a little help we managed to track down the original font used on the label. Conveniently renamed just to make our jobs a little harder.

We found some original images of the employees in the archives. They all seem rather trendy in todays day and age.

Hand crafted elements played a huge part in the design of this book in order to keep the look and feel authentic. We produced graphic interpretations of the employees using linocut.

Together with the photographer Brendan Austin we documented the restoration over a period of 3 years.

These image were used in a dedicated art section of the book and also used throughout the building itself.

As the crowning glory, buried deep in layers of the dusty Octapharma archives, we managed to find the original recipe fo the beer that was once brewed here. So we got a local brewery to brew it for us and enjoyed it at the grand opening. A full circle project.