The visual ‘territories’ of design and the strategic routes of marketing and advertising run in cycles, parallel to consumer culture. Ideas that fall by the wayside one decade are rediscovered, remixed or recycled in another. Challenger brands grow, take on the established and are either acquired, expire or, sometimes, find a sweet spot for growth that allows them to remain true...
New products, new markets and new consumer groups generate new aesthetics – or, at least, you would hope so. Too often, style migrates from one category to another, or the identity of a sub-culture (visually speaking), is exploited in a commercial context. This is where ‘authenticity’ emerges, to support genuine origin credentials, or to mask the appropriation with narrative context....
In case you’ve missed it, low and no-alcohol drinks are a thing. With over 20% of adults in the UK claiming to be teetotal, abstinence is cool: Brewdog is now Punk AF (that’s ‘alcohol free’), Thomson & Scott’s Noughty is (fairly) nice, and Seedlip is sexy. This sobriety revolution is driven, in part, by the mindfully sceptical Gen Z, turned...
The pandemic catalysed the at-home market for a whole host of products. Paired with social isolation, it’s no wonder that one of the markets to benefit would be alcohol. Just like coffee, dried flowers and cleaning products, alcohol was packed down into letterbox-sized parcels and sent through the post. Mail-order cocktails have been a somewhat surprising development. The drama, theatre...
Although its recent rise to popularity has been rapid, running a quick search on ‘kombucha’ reveals that until the 21st century it had seen little category growth since its creation, more than 2000 years ago. For the uninitiated, kombucha is a fermented, non-alcoholic sweetened tea containing vitamins, amino acids and nutrients. This mix of familiarity (as a tea), its sweetness...
According to Sweden’s travel and tourism website, craft beer enthusiasts will discover a ‘smorgasbord’ of artisanal, eco-friendly and organic things to drink there, with more microbreweries per capita than any other country (apart from the UK). Omaka joined the scene in September 2020, at the height of the pandemic, and with a slogan to match its fearless attitude: ‘taste before...
StrangeLove is an Australian soft drinks brand that began with a four flavour range of energy drinks. Although mass-produced, each of these was created with the intention of evoking a taste of the homemade through carefully sourced and high-quality organic ingredients. The range was developed in response to energy drink brands who StrangeLove believed had failed to live up to their...
With a desire to stand out, and in response to the extensive saturation of heritage-related visual cues throughout the German beer market, brewery St. ERHARD worked outside of the country with Swedish studio Bedow to develop a modern graphic identity for three of its brews. Farmer, Mayflower and Saison are premium beers, each of which are crafted, brewed and bottled by St. Erhard in...
Talor&Jørgen is a Norwegian speciality coffee roastery and coffee subscription service that delivers small boxes of freshly roasted beans, sourced from across the globe, to subscribers based on their drinking habits rather than to a schedule. Product naming focuses on bringing to the forefront flavour notes rather than bean provenance, variety and preparation (although this is online and on pack) with the intention of making...
Vi Novell 2016 is a young wine from Catalonia with an intense ruby colour and a fresh and fruity flavour profile. It is the seventh in an ongoing series, and is dedicated to the party; the open-air dance, the joy and celebration of the beginning of the season, the first sip of wine, shared with friends, and the continued enjoyment of a long tradition...
Talor&Jørgen is a Norwegian speciality coffee roastery and coffee subscription service delivering small boxes of freshly roasted beans, sourced from across the globe, to subscribers based on their drinking habits rather than to a schedule. Product naming focuses on bringing to the forefront flavour notes rather than bean provenance, variety and preparation (although this is online and on pack) with the intention of making speciality coffee...
Víspera is premium coffee brand that intends to bring together the best of two worlds, a blend of 100% Arabica coffee beans sourced from the high altitude plantations of Colombia and a Swedish eye for quality and craftsmanship in its roasting. This meeting is visually articulated through type contrast, colour and pattern across Víspera’s packaging, developed by Stockholm Design Lab....