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ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE PACKAGE DESIGN
Staring Faces Gin
A self-directed project focusing on the creation of a gin company's personal branding and packaging for a series of 3 gin labels. With the concept of the hunt for a bottle in mind, I centered the brand around "staring faces" that acted as "the bottles that stared back" as a customer would peruse a grocery store.
With an emphasis on eyes and faces, I leaned into illustrated character representations for the brand.
The act of staring was the leading component behind design decisions, which led me to experiment between humans and animals. Through these iterations, I began playing with the feeling of an uneasy laugh with each design.
After collecting the sketches, I gathered that I wanted to save the illustrated figure component for the label itself, and focus on a more hand lettered approach to the brand's official logo.
PHASE 1
After deciding on moving toward a logo without an illustration, I focused on the hand as a character to bring personality to the typography.
The final collection of type features the hand drawn logo, as well as header and body typefaces. Balancing off of the playfulness of the logo, I leaned into fonts that were more simplified, elevated, and sturdy.
PHASE 2
Once type was established, it was time to introduce illustrated characters to the brand. At first, I imagined a mascot that could be used to highlight Staring Faces: a lion with vivid eyes and some awkward wings.
Brush strokes took on a vital role as a humorous communicator, which let the viewer know that the brand was a bit unserious and welcoming.
The thoughtful design work and contextualization of these illustrations, however, reignited the more subtle sophistication of the brand.
PHASE 3
By joining the illustrations and type together, I continued to play with organic shapes and spaces for the two to live in together. Initially, I created a wobbly base for the label to reflect the spirit's own wobbly effects and the looseness of the illustration style.
After laying out the single illustration on the front label, however, I felt the illustration and its surface could be pushed further.
PHASE 3
Going back to the drawing board, the initial single illustration bloomed into an array of characters and interactions. By reflecting on the bottle's own rounded surface and the way we interact with it by turning it in our hands, I played with a wrap-around illustration that never broke eye contact with the viewer as they investigated the gin.
Each illustration became themed after the style of gin it decorated, consisting of London Dry, New Western, and Old Tom.
PHASE 4
Alongside the illustrations' color minimal palettes, the labels' palettes went through iterations and exploration. Giving each label its own identity between its personalized illustration, theme, and color, served as a way to create even more character surrounding the individual bottle.
PHASE 5
After the copy, fonts, illustrations, and color palettes were established, the logo shape and organization underwent refinement until a final honed-in direction was developed.
A darker perimeter was chosen for each bottle to serve as a framing device for the scene within, the contrast pushing the illustrations' color and line sensitivity forward.
PHASE 5
The type and image breakdown of one complete label became the blueprints for the other two, informing the "rule book" that the labels lived by.
PHASE 6
Once all label designs were created, the project became physical! To start the printing process, the labels went through a series of test prints to check type legibility and color accuracy. After approving the design, a separate file was edited to support a raised ink approach at a SCAD's Number Nine print lab.
The raised ink, informed by a grayscale version of the label, added an extra layer of depth both texturally and visually. This technique allowed the illustrations to take on another sense of life, and added more of a tactile nature to the frantic scenes nested on the bottles.
PHASE 6
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