The archive · Design & Visual · Product decision · 2023
Biobrush turns wood and water into the brand story of its biodegradable toothbrush
For a biodegradable toothbrush, a 'little tree' symbol system makes every color, package and kids' star grow out of the wood and water in the product.
Biobrush
What it had to solve
Biobrush's toothbrush is biodegradable, but that difference had no face: on a shelf of similar brushes, shoppers could not see why it deserved its own brand. The brief was a sustainability brand and packaging system that would make the material story tangible across the range, including a children's line.
How it works
Biobrush makes a biodegradable toothbrush, but biodegradability is invisible on a shelf full of similar brushes. The project's brief was a sustainability brand and packaging range that would make the material difference feel real before anyone read a claim.
The system starts with a modern wordmark and a freely posable symbol detached from it: a 'little tree' that represents the raw material, wood, and a splash of fresh water. Each product color gets a key visual that recalls plant shoots, while recurring details — toothbrush splashes, brush outlines — give the whole range one visual language.
Even the children's line carries the idea: its stars are named after woods, like Oaky and Ginko & Co., drawn in the same style to differentiate the products. D&AD's awards archive lists the work under Packaging Design; the page records no sales figures, so the case stands on making the product's greenness visible through design.
Why it lands
- The 'little tree' symbol makes the wood-and-water material story readable in a single mark.
- A freely posable symbol and plant-shoot key visuals let one system flex across colors and lines without losing identity.
- Wood-named stars turn the kids' line into product differentiation that still tells the same material story.
- Every element, from splash to brush outline, grows out of the product itself, so the design cannot be detached from what the brush is made of.
What it did
The redesign gave the biodegradable product a visual language that looks like its materials, and D&AD's awards archive lists the work under Packaging Design. The archive page records no sales figures; the case stands on making 'biodegradable' the whole design system instead of a claim printed on the pack.
What you can take
A sustainability story that cannot be seen is not a story: build the brand's whole visual system out of the material difference, so the pack itself explains why the product exists.
Since then
The Biobrush identity and packaging now sit in D&AD's awards archive as a packaging design example of making a material difference visible. The archive page records no sales or market figures; the transferable move is treating the product's one environmental advantage as the entire visual vocabulary instead of a supporting badge.
Sources
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