Category: Packaging

Packaging

One in Four Million Bottle Design

By Delphine Hirasuna |

As renowned for its creative branding as it is for its premium vodka, Absolut continually tops itself with fantastic new visual expressions. In this case, the Swedish vodka-maker, owned by French company, Pernod Ricard, teamed with Swedish ad agency, Family Business, to give new meaning to the term “limited edition.” The idea was not just to make each Absolut bottle seem unique, but to actually be unique. To do that, Absolut had to reconfigure its bottling production line to recreate artwork with splash guns, 38 colors, and 51 patterns. A complex computerized algorithms program orchestrated these elements in a randomized fashion so that no two bottles were decorated alike. In fact, Absolut estimates that it would take 94 quintrillion bottles before two identical designs resulted. The company is not producing that many, but it did individually number each of the four million bottles in its limited edition line, which it appropriately named “Absolut Unique.”

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Packaging

Sense of Place as Brand Identity

By Delphine Hirasuna |

When Icelandic Glacial Water rebranded itself, it shifted the focus from the generic word “glacial” and placed the emphasis on “Icelandic.” That made all the difference. Designed by Los Angeles-based Team One, the new logo, bottle and packaging establish a sense of place for the brand. The frosted label features the geographic shape of Iceland with a black logotype that looks like it was hacked out of shards of Arctic ice. Instead of a predominant mineral cobalt blue color, the new label is a translucent sapphire blue that evokes the pristine purity of Iceland’s famous natural resource. The back panel, printed in contrasting varnishes, reveals the tagline “Source of the Epic Life” as if visible through a veneer of frosty ice. The new design positions Icelandic Glacial Water as a premium brand – so much so that you wonder if it contains expensive vodka.

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Pop Culture

Soup as Art; Art as Soup

By Delphine Hirasuna |

To mark the 50th anniversary of Andy Warhol’s famed “32 Campbell’s Soup Cans” painting, the soup company has just released a limited run of pop art soup cans in select Target stores around the country. The commemorative packaging is a collaboration of the Campbell’s Global Design team and the Andy Warhol Foundation.

Warhol, who died in 1987, had an eye for what was iconic in American culture, albeit a soup can, Brillo box, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, or Mao Tse Tung. The founder of the Pop Art Movement, Warhol began his career as a commercial illustrator, then manipulated our view of everyday objects so we could appreciate them as high art.

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Packaging

Eco-Friendly Vodka Packaging

By Delphine Hirasuna |

As vodka products go, Good Ol Sailor Vodka deserves a prize for all-around eco-friendliness. Designed by Swedish agency, Division, the Good Ol Sailor brand is the first vodka in Sweden sold in recyclable PET plastic bottles – a material with significantly lower environmental impact than glass. Good Ol Sailor vodka is also made from organically grown, Swedish barley that has been distilled four times to assure a clean and fruity nose. The graphics, too, by Swedish tattoo artist Mattias Broden, appear right on the surface of the bottle to integrate the packaging design with the container itself. This is a branding program that strives to tread lightly on the earth. That deserves a toast!

Packaging

All-Natural Meals in a Can

By Delphine Hirasuna |

Querida Carmen, pre-cooked traditional foods from Spain, suggests its all-natural ingredients and clean, distinct flavors through the uncontrived look of its packaging. Barcelona-based design agency, Grafica, developed the name, identity and packaging for the brand. In addition to its appealing graphics, the packaging cleverly keeps the “wet” ingredients separate from the dry ones by placing a metal can within a cardboard carton. Everything is pre-measured, pre-chopped and pre-cooked, and all the home cook has to do is bring the ingredients in the can to a boil and then add the rice or noodles a few minutes before serving. Dinner is served.

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