Veuve Clicquot and Wallpaper* at Hotel du Marc

The ground floor of the beautiful 175-year-old building was covered with perfectly rendered customisations of classic US mailboxes in an array of designs and colours. And the event was the culmination of a journey that began on 1 October 2014 when Veuve Clicquot and Wallpaper* announced its collaborative Re-Creation Awards with a rousing missive from Veuve’s founder Madame Barbe-Nicole Clicquot. 'Invent the things of tomorrow,’ said Madame Clicquot in one of her famous letters mailed from her Reims home during the 19th century. ‘Go before others, be determined and exacting... let your intelligence direct your life. Act with audacity.’ With these words as inspiration, competition entrants were also urged to act with audacity by submitting graphic designs and colours for a limited-edition version of Veuve Clicquot’s American mailbox-style gift packaging. Inspired by Madame Clicquot’s history of correspondence with her clientele, these allow one to send a 75cl bottle of champagne through the post.

‘The Re-Creation Awards captured the very essence of Veuve Clicquot's creative spirit,’ says Gallot. ‘Taking something traditional, classic and iconic, and reimagining it, reinterpreting it so that it becomes something new, modern and extraordinary. We have been thrilled by the way the competition has captured the imagination of young creative minds all over the world. We had 371 outstanding entries to present to our jury and more than 350,000 people voted online. The project has been truly inspirational.’

The inaugural competition invited members of the public and up-and-coming designers from nine host countries to reimagine the mailbox. At the end of last year, two national winners were determined from each host country, one by online public vote, the other by local jury. The shortlist of 18 winning designers then gathered at Veuve Clicquot’s Hôtel du Marc, in the Champagne region of France, for a prestigious two-day experience, ending with a gala ceremony where the international winner of the competition was revealed to be Toronto-based graphic designer Eileen Ugarkovic, who picked up €10,000 in prize money and the chance to present her winning Clicquot Mailbox at Salone del Mobile in Milan. ‘In creating my concept, I was inspired by Clicquot’s anchor, the symbol of hope,’ says Ugarkovic. ‘When one thinks of hope, birds immediately come to mind – birds also represent freedom and ideas. Since freedom and ideas are conceived on paper, I envisioned paper birds, or paper planes, flying into Madame Clicquot’s mailbox. Blue was chosen in addition to the brand colour to symbolise Clicquot's historical contribution to the city of Reims. When combined, these colours are regal and royal, just like the Clicquot brand itself.’

Ugarkovic grew up in the Canadian steel town of Hamilton, an hour away from cosmopolitan Toronto, in an industrious family with Croatian heritage. ‘Mum sewed, Dad built furniture…built our house, in fact.’ She studied broadcast journalism at college but later dropped out to go travelling around Europe, where she found her calling. Inspired by the architecture of Bruges, Berlin and Barcelona, and the grand aesthetic of Paris and London, Ugarkovic returned to Canada ready to start again. She graduated in design from George Brown College, Toronto, in 2004 and is now a senior designer at TMX Equicom, where she specialises in corporate identity, branding and logos. ‘Winning this award has been so emotional for me, a genuine inspiration,’ Ugarkovic told Wallpaper* as she clutched her silver Pablo Reinoso-designed award. ‘I never thought I would end up doing a job that I love. I had to wait a long time to find my way, and winning this competition feels like the reward for all my patience and the start of something wonderful.’

So why did the jury choose Ugarkovic’s paper planes? It was, as they say at Hôtel du Marc, ‘So Clicquot’. ‘All the competition entries were beautiful,’ says Reinoso. ‘But this was the most beautiful of all because it also fulfilled the brief, echoed the heritage of the Clicquot marque, and the creative, communicative spirit of its founder.’ ‘And everyone loves a paper plane,’ adds Wallpaper* creative director Sarah Douglas.