Kankan
Iconic refillable soap packaging
Brief
To design an iconic refillable soap dispenser with a no-pour no-fuss user experience.
Narrative
Celebrating the can is the key to the Kankan packaging; relying on the well recognised, and widely recycled tin can, to nudge consumer behaviour around disposal of bathroom waste.
Outcome
A beautifully simple clip on pump that secures to the can with a twist of the playful thumb screw. The design enabled us to minimise the use of plastic (what remains is 50-100% PCR) and rely on the refill itself as the body of the vessel.
“Our ambition is to make refills mainstream. We hope that by making refills more convenient, it helps broaden the appeal and reduces our consumption for single-use plastics in the home. Morrama truly understands and champions our values and purpose, and the new design offers a premium product experience that makes everyone’s homes a bit more sustainable with every refill.”
- Eliza Flanagan, Co-Founder of KANKAN
On average, British adults throw away 312 plastic bottles per year, but only half of us recycle bathroom packaging, much of the time because it’s not clear whether it can or can’t be recycled. KANKAN have taken the most widely recognised recyclable packaging option; the tin can and put their soap in it. The question for Morrama was how best to get the soap out of it.
Most multi-use bathroom products on the market either require you to insert a refill into a case or pour a refill into a bottle. These are either heavy on material use, or frustrating for the user. Morrama experimented with a series of attachments that made replacing empty cans a quick and easy process. The resulting design is simply clicked on to the can and secured in place with a thumb screw, making the changeover process a much faster and hassle-free experience than the previous experience of pouring the contents into a glass bottle.
Colour and materials
Wanting to celebrate the rawness of the materials being used, everything is kept neutral and natural in colour. The cap and screw are made from 100% post consumer recycled (PCR) polypropylene plastic and the dispensing pump is 50%; the remaining 50% virgin plastic required for cosmetic compatibility and function.
User interaction
Whilst the design is seemingly very simple, the challenge was in achieving a liquid tight seal between the can and attachment on top, preventing the product from leaking out or oxygen entering in and causing contamination. Wanting to keep the user experience as simple as possible, the idea was to directly ‘click’ the lid on with a bump-fit design. In testing, this proved secure enough for the majority of use cases, however the psychological reassurance of having a secondary ‘screw’ interaction gives the user confidence that the cap is really secure and makes it much easier to remove and ‘refill’. Inspired by the classic machined thumb screw, but designing it playfully in matching plastic, the Morrama team have engineered it so it cannot fall out and get lost.
Championing sustainability
KANKAN currently offer Hand Wash, Body Wash and Baby Wash in their unique can packaging, with more products on the way. For every can sold KANKAN plants a tree and their shipping packaging remains plastic free. Their formulations are also vegan friendly and paraben + sulphate free.
