JUNO im Grafikmagazin
The Grafikmagazin celebrates 25 years of JUNO and the long-standing partnership with the Munken brand in a feature with us.
Munken is perhaps the most well-known design paper brand in Europe. We are happy and proud to have been creatively and strategically shaping the Swedish brand for many years. The Grafikmagazin interviewed JUNO founders Björn Lux and Frank Wache about this, asking them how they’ve successfully run a branding agency for 25 years and what’s coming next. Here are some excerpts from the feature in issue 4/25.
“Many at JUNO experienced the ‘print and editorial era’ and essentially grew into the digital world from there. The two of us founders — Björn and I — originally come from photography and, before the JUNO days, traveled the world for magazines like Geo, stern, ZEIT Magazin and SZ-Magazin,” explains Frank Wache. What has stayed with the two agency founders to this day is “a love for images, stories, and print — certainly an important prerequisite for continually being excited about such a special natural paper like Munken.”
However, the fact that they’ve been working with this paper client for so many years isn’t solely due to their own affinity for print. “We have a lot of very talented designers in-house. For them, designing for Munken is always both a challenge and a joy,” adds Björn Lux. “The paper positions itself as the paper for creatives, used for highly sophisticated projects. This means that, as a designer for Munken, you have the opportunity to create something extraordinary, which is also recognized across the entire European design scene. Every Munken project is about shaping the sensual and the technically possible in a contemporary and creative way — while simultaneously inspiring people to reflect and engage.”
As another factor for the brand’s outstanding storytelling over many years, Wache and Lux highlight Munken’s culture and values: “Arctic Paper, Munken’s manufacturer, was committed to environmental protection very early on,” Frank Wache explains, referring to the production process of the paper, which has been made in Munkedal, Sweden, since 1871, a region where large areas are under nature protection. “The surrounding rivers and fjords are among the richest in fish. As an agency, we’ve been invited there several times and had the opportunity to experience the nature and the people. The warmth and the way people interact with each other create a feeling of friendship.”
Where does JUNO stand today? All in all, the team is “a good mix of strategy, creativity, tech, and a lot of experience with premium and luxury brands in industries like paper, textiles, and kitchens”; naturally, they are drawn to other tactile topics for clients like the textile manufacturer Kvadrat. They’re also active in spatial design, working with clients like kitchen maker Poggenpohl or various architecture firms. Wache and Lux see it as an advantage to have been in the business for a long time and to have experienced extensive change.
What’s next? “We’ve always found ways to play out our own idea of branding and design. Everyone is talking about the threat to agencies posed by AI. Of course, it’s tempting to use AI to create or write the obvious. But our premium and luxury clients want the extraordinary. The last few quality percentages are, as we know, the hardest to achieve. In our view, they always arise from the interplay of human creativity and technology. In the future, our clients will also need to differentiate themselves as brands — and they’ll need a fresh perspective from outside because what they’re looking for is quality in design, thought, and execution.”
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This is Munken
Munken is one of the very few – perhaps even the only brand – that has managed to become a well-known brand as a paper range in Europe. Whenever you mention the name »Munken« around people who are familiar with high-quality printed matter such as art catalogs, you look into joyful nodding faces. Now the Swedish brand with the monk is to become even more international. To this end, we are refreshing the brand image and promoting it with the »Colab« campaign.