Michelle Cooper: June 2018

Friday, June 29, 2018

Brighton Gins Aims To Color Your World

Brighton Gin celebrates Pride Month by developing a limited edition collection of design that features the eight colors of the Pride Flag.

“Creative branding and communications agency Our Design Agency (ODA) reveals a bold design and strategy for Brighton Gin’s latest Pride Limited Edition, inspired by this year’s Brighton Pride theme – Colour My World.

The design features the eight colours from the original Pride flag commissioned by politician and activist Harvey Milk and devised by artist Gilbert Baker in San Francisco in 1978 as the festival returns to the historic flag this year.

ODA illustrates Brighton Gin’s hand-crafted credentials with hand-painted lettering and celebrates Pride in an authentic way. A portion of the profits from the limited edition goes to The Rainbow Fund, a Brighton and Hove-based grant-giving fund which supports local LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS organisations. The original iconic Seafront Blue Brighton Gin was also designed by ODA.

Panna Rose, Managing Director, ODA, says: “We wanted to create a range where people could have fun by rearranging the letters or create their own gin collection. It reflects the spirit of Brighton and Brighton Gin. It’s a true celebration of diversity and the individual.”

"Sarah Westwood, Creative Strategist, ODA, adds: ‘The design oozes confidence. We wanted to go big on Pride as part of Brighton Gin’s brand personality and therefore we celebrated the rainbow in a way that would create real excitement in Brighton, particularly as a display as the city’s residents and retailers decorate their windows for Pride and gear up for one the biggest celebrations of the year.’

‘Brighton Your Life’
Collectively the labels spell out Brighton (or other words depending on how they are arranged) and with eight letters in Brighton and eight colours in the flag, it was the perfect fit. The range of eight unique bottles bear the individual flag colours which stand for sexuality, life, healing, sunlight, nature, art/magic, harmony and spirit.

A storytelling link to each colour features on the label and illustrates how these qualities link to life in Brighton in a way which works across social media channels.

Each label bears a letter from the word Brighton, hand-painted in the famous Brighton Seafront Blue on top of the flag colour. The design reflects the brand proposition ‘Brighton Your Life,’ a call to action to be more Brighton and enjoy a laid-back craft gin which helps people escape the humdrum, open their minds and let their hair down. ODA removed all the brand graphics apart from the logo.”

“Celebrating diversity Westwood adds: 'The challenge was to avoid a rainbow flag cliché. In recent years many of the big brands have entered Pride and taken on the rainbow as an easy symbol to associate with their brand, but Brighton Gin is different.’ It’s a small company based in Brighton with diversity at its core, so we wanted to create a limited edition that felt authentic.

Our creative concept was to celebrate Pride, dedicate a bottle to every colour and tell the story of the meaning of the flag. Together the bottles make up a whole, just like the flag itself.” The brand is releasing 1,400 bottles in the colours of the Pride flag priced at £45 each (700ml), available from fine local, independent retailers from June 29th and from Brightongin.com Brighton Gin will donate £2 from every bottle sold to The Rainbow Fund. Since Brighton Gin began limited editions in 2014, the annual Pride release has achieved cult status in Brighton and has become a collectors’ item. In previous years the brand adopted a label colour change, first to pink and then to rainbow for its Pride Limited Editions.

Kathy Caton, Founder, Brighton Gin, says: Kathy said: 'Set to be bolder, more beautiful and brilliant than ever, we’re so proud that we host the UK’s biggest Pride Festival in our free-thinking, campaigning Iand and hedonistic home city. We want to celebrate that ultimate spirit of Brighton and contribute again to the essential work of the Rainbow Fund in supporting the city’s LGBTQ+ community and voluntary sector.”

Design Agency: Our Design Agency
Client: Brighton Gin
Location: United Kingdom

Move Over Movember, Plastic Free July Is Right Around The Corner

By: Casha Doemland

Plastic poses a threat not only to our planet but also our many inhabitants. Today, there are five garbage patches our oceans, one of which is the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch with a whopping 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic. It’s estimated that by 2050 the amount of plastic floating in our oceans will surpass the weight of fish.

While many companies and countries around the world are making great strides to get rid of single-use plastic, there are also changes you can make in your day to day life to help.

For the month of July, join the Plastic Free July Foundation, an independent not-for-profit based in Perth, Australia and reduce your footprint.

The initiative was launched back in 2011 by WMRC Earth Carers, a program dedicated to educating, advising and facilitating environmentally sustainable practices and behaviors in Perth. Over time, it blossomed into a foundation of its own, which you see today.

Multiple levels of commitment are available from going plastic free for a day, a week, all of July or even starting now. Additionally, you can opt out of using single-use plastic packaging, target takeaway items like bags, bottles, straws and coffee cups, or go 100% plastic-free.

Once you accept the challenge, you receive an email that leads to your next steps, starting with a Pesky Plastics Quiz to learn more about how much single-use plastic creeps in your life. For example, do you refuse plastic straws at restaurants and always remember to bring your reusable bags to the grocery store?

From there, their website has plenty of great tips and tricks, from A-Z Alternatives like using paper bags over plastic bags, using shampoo bars over plastic pump bottles and even making your own deodorant (recipe included).

Additionally, newsletters will appear in your inbox throughout the month to keep you going.

Of course, no one is asking you to go big or go home. You don’t have to throw away all the plastic in your house. Because let’s face it, throwing those items away without having used them is even more wasteful. So, use what you have and then invest in sustainable options for the future. Just make sure, you know, you recycle it.

So, are you willing to go plastic free?

LA-based and Georgia-bred, Casha Doemland spends her days crafting poetry and freelance writing. Over the last two years, she’s been published in a variety of publications and zines around the world. When she’s not nerding out with words, you can catch her watching a classic film, trekking around the globe or hanging out with a four-pound Pomeranian.

Thursday, June 28, 2018

This Packaging Aims To Capture The Romantic Spirit of Italy

In 2015 moodley developed the new corporate design for Viani, a Germany based retailer for Italian delicacies. The last step was the revision of the packaging of Viani’s store brand. A quite important task, not least because customers get in touch with a culinary brand in retail mainly by the product’s orchestration. So what was needed was a packaging concept that offers a high recognition factor despite having such a huge range. The tomato products were supposed to play an important role in all of this.

Tomatoes have always been the base for the majority of Italian dishes – this is why tomato products – from Passata til Sugo – get treated differently. To make one feel romantic Italy when opening a Polpa tin, a special retro edition was created for tomato products: A tasty tomato red is staged prominently and the “Dolce Vita” was translated in an atmospheric packaging design. “That’s amore”, that’s what Dean Martin would say.

Designed By: moodley brand identity
Client: Antonio Viani Importe GmbH
Art Direction: Nora Obergeschwandner
Graphic Design: Nora Obergeschwandner
Consulting: Alex Rehm
Rollout: Antonio Viani Importe GmbH
Location: Vienna, Austria

Pennyback is Serving Up "Heavy-Duty" Cocktail Mixers

Chad Michael Studio designed the striking packaging for Pennyback, a new range of cocktail mixers.

“Heavy-duty mixers from Austin, Texas forged with locally sourced ingredients. Inspired by Austin’s iconic Pennybacker bridge.”

Photography: Rusty Hill

Location: Dallas, USA

Can Regular Ol’ Beauty Products Compete with Celebrity Beauty Lines?

By: Theresa Christine

“Do you dare?" I can remember the exact breathy voice Britney Spears used in the commercial for her new perfume, Curious. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a bottle. I was hardly a fan of hers; rather, she represented something which I desperately wanted to be.

“Using celebrities for promotion is hardly new,” reporter Julie Criswell mentioned in the New York Times. Just think of film stars posing for cigarette companies or Michael Jordan and Nike. The first celebrity endorsement dates back all the way to the 1760s when a British entrepreneur created a tea set for Queen Charlotte. Word got out about his “Queensware,” and it built up a brand image and allowed him to monetize further. And today, you can’t avoid something being inadvertently sold to you through the face of a celebrity because brands know we the people adore celebrities.

“We love to identify with someone who seems to lead a perfect life,” Sheila Kohler mentioned in Psychology Today. While we may not be able to attain all of the glamour their lives have (like film premieres and world tours), maybe—just maybe—we can get a bit of it through the products they use. And what better products to use than the ones which make them so beautiful and enchanting to us in the first place?

Recently, though, it’s not become so much “celebrity endorsements” as it has “celebrity product lines.” While brands continue to collaborate with well-known faces and household names, some celebs have taken it a step further.

Kat Von D has her own line sold at Sephora since 2008. Rhianna launched Fenty Beauty so you can get a bit of that RiRi glow. Kylie Jenner experienced massive success with Kylie Cosmetics—when released, her lip kits reportedly sold out in seven minutes. Salma Hayek, Jessica Alba, and Drew Barrymore are just a few others to sell their own beauty products as well.

With all of these world-famous celebs making sunscreens, makeup, lotions, and more, is it even possible for regular brands to compete? Actually, yes.

Roshida Khanom, the Associate Director for Mintel Beauty & Personal Care, reported that 28% of women are interested in seeing someone who is a strong female role model when it comes to beauty products, but only 7% want to see a celebrity as a makeup brand ambassador.

Celebrities certainly still have selling power—Kylie Jenner’s net worth of $50 million proves that point—but it’s not necessarily where consumer preference will be in a few years. The rise of the blogger or YouTube influencer is the next big thing as people prefer to see more relatable versions of their better selves selling these items.

Mark Velarga, Head of Marketing at PakFactory agreed that non-celebrity beauty brands should look towards influencer marketing. “Many brands are attaching themselves to influencers and celebrities so that they can capture their following on social,” he explained. “Brands would create a product line specifically for them, but it is still managed by the company.”

He also said that consumer behavior is now highly focused on personalization, and it’s no longer a mass mindset of getting whatever everyone else has; instead, people want a more individual, bespoke experience. “While high profile celebrity typically gets the attention of the mass,” he advised, “regular beauty lines are beginning to focus more on niche markets and use all of their marketing resources to capture those specific consumers.”

Furthermore, there’s the issue of quality. Celebrity beauty brands may seem a bit like a fad, but they do offer consumers something a regular brand can’t—hype and recognition on social media when they share their new product with the world. However, Mark added, “The only way consumers will keep coming back and prevent the product from becoming a fad is simply the quality and the experience.”

According to Nielsen, consumers are happy to pay more for better quality products—so if consumers are faced with the decision of something their favorite movie star made or something that actually works, they’ll go with the latter.

No doubt, celebs will continue to launch their own massively lucrative beauty brands. They know we have a weakness for Kat Von D’s stunning eye makeup, Rihanna’s perfectly poreless skin, or even Britney’s effortless sex appeal (or maybe that was just me). Regardless, consumers are changing, and so too must beauty brands. The most successful ones in the near future will rely on being relatable and made exceptionally well rather than pure star power.

Theresa entered the world of design through The Dieline. With a background in writing and journalism, she has a passion for discovery and cultivating human connections. Her work for The Dieline is a constant journey to deeply understand all facets of the design process and to investigate what makes designers tick. Theresa’s writing has taken her snorkeling in between the tectonic plates in Iceland, horseback riding through a rural Brazilian town, and riding an octopus art car at Burning Man with Susan Sarandon as part of a funeral procession for Timothy Leary (long story). When not writing, she is planning her next trip or taking too many pictures of her cat.

Microvinifications Celebrates Wine With a Variety of Illustrated Labels

Vouni Panayia Winery shares its experiments with the rare and indigenous varieties of Cyprus through an array of microvinifications.

The target of the family is understanding in depth the potential of the autochthonous grape varieties of the island through the observation of their performance in different viticultural - oenological practices.

The resulting wines have been assigned a specific story that represents each variety and its vinification. The themes of the stories include the natural environment, the people and special moments of the family.

Marios has brought together in this project, artists and friends Andrea Alambriti, Andreas Boukas, Dimitrios Klonos, Alexandra Manousakis, Manolis Moumalidis and George Tzavaras to illustrate in their unique styles these stories which are told on the back labels.

Design/Concept By: Marios Karystios
Storytelling By: Yiannis & Pavlos Kyriakidis
Photography By: Nikos Koustenis
Printed at Forlabels, Greece
Artwork By:Andrea Alambriti, Andreas Boukas, Dimitrios Klonos, Alexandra Manousakis, Manolis Moumalidis, George Tzavaras, Marios Karystios
Location: Greece