/PROJECT OVERVIEW
Old Roots is a limited-edition wine packaging concept rooted in the memory of pre-colonial Africa. Inspired by the history of slavery and colonial trade in South Africa, this project transforms the wine box into something more than a vessel — it becomes an artifact. A witness. A conversation that starts before the bottle is ever opened.
/PROBLEM
Wine packaging has always leaned on identity — the label, the name, the story of the winemaker. But what happens when the most powerful story is the one that was deliberately erased? The challenge here wasn’t visual. It was historical. How do you design packaging that honors the memory of people who were stripped of their names, their origins, and their humanity — without turning that pain into decoration?
/CONCEPT
The answer lived in the objects themselves.
The box is built from repurposed old wood — scratched, painted over, worn. Not refined. Not restored. The marks stay, because the marks are the point. Carved directly into the surface is the project name. No gloss. No finish. Just material memory.
Inside, the 21 bottles carry no label. No winery. No vintage. Each one is numbered — 001 through 021 — the way people were numbered when their names were taken from them. The absence of a label isn’t an oversight. It’s the entire statement.
A leather strap wraps each bottle within the box. It pulls from two references at once: the holster strap worn by colonial officers to carry their weapons, and the binding used on the enslaved. Same material. Two histories. One object.
And when the wine is gone, the box remains. Designed to be repurposed as a carry piece — a briefcase for books, a fashion accessory worn alongside African contemporary dress — the box refuses to be disposable. Like the culture it draws from, it endures. It was made to be carried. On the arm. Or on the head, in the tradition of those who carried loads not by choice, but by force — an act this project chooses to remember, not erase.
Designer : Tosin Sam.
Location : Ibadan, Nigeria
Project : OLD ROOTS – Pre Colonial
Client : /