Designed to be drunk

As anyone who’s ever dithered in the wine section of a supermarket, sweating under the strip lighting and trying to work out which label says: “I’m a serious connoisseur” rather than “I didn’t want to spend more than a tenner” knows – looks matter. 

When it comes to drinks, be it teabags or Premier Cru champagne, packaging is perhaps more important than in any other sector – and it’s all down to product oversaturation. 

Most beverage brands have little or no advertising budget, and packaging design becomes the only way to tell an engaging brand story. 

As Kevin Shaw, founder of Stranger & Stranger, a bicoastal agency specialising in drinks branding, points out: “There are more than 500 American pinot noirs and I challenge any regular consumer to tell them apart. In Bordeaux, for example, there are over 8,500 wine producers, all using the same shaped wine bottle - so the label is the only thing to distinguish them.” 

Add to this the fact that most beverage brands have little or no advertising budget, and packaging design becomes the only way to tell an engaging brand story.

Beavertown's Gamma Ray artwork, by Nick Dwyer. 

While wine’s design identity may be constrained to its label, in other beverage categories, it’s the bottle that’s earned cult status. It could be the shape – think of Coca Cola’s curvaceous ‘contour’ glass bottle, voted the most iconic packaging on UK shelves in 2016, and Jack Daniel’s square flagons, supposedly adopted to stop them from rolling in the back of a truck – or the texture, such as the bobbly “orange peel” surface of the much-loved Orangina bottle. 

It could even be the colour: the specific Pantone shade (137) that’s used across all Veuve Clicquot packaging, from labels to presentation boxes and collectable tins, is so distinctive that it boasts its own trademark – and woe betide any wine producer seeking to siphon off that bright orange goodwill.  

Propelled by the bold colours and botanical flourishes on its packaging, Pukka’s herbal infusions have become as hip as artisan coffee 

Some drinks packaging has become so iconic that people keep it on display long after the contents have been slurped or sipped – no 1970s dinner table was complete without an empty straw-wrapped bottle of Mateus Rose doubling as a candleholder. Today’s equivalent is the herbal tea brand Pukka, whose vibrant, William Morris-on-acid boxes adorn many a kitchen shelf, either as pure decoration or stuffed with a guilty secret: a cheaper, but less exquisitely packaged, brand of tea. 

Propelled by the bold colours and botanical flourishes on its packaging, Pukka’s herbal infusions have become as hip as artisan coffee – no mean feat for a drinks category that tastes of, well, very little.     

The specific shade of Pantone (137) used on Veuve Clicquot packaging. 

It was a different story in the early days, says David Thomson, founder and creative director of The Space Creative, who began working with Pukka as a fledgling brand stocked in independent health stores in the UK. “They had a great product, but their packaging looked like cough medicine,” he remembers. “We felt it was our duty to tell them so and offered to help make their teas look as good on the outside as they tasted on the inside.” 

We set out to express Pukka’s values – of balance, harmony, and the symbiosis between people and plants – through design rather than words.

At the time, most herbal tea packaging leant on predictable tropes like pictures of teacups or yogis in the lotus position; the Space Creative wanted to create a completely new and ownable brand look, reflecting Pukka’s values of balance, harmony, and the symbiosis between people and plants. “We set out to express that through design rather than words, and the iconic symmetrical Pukka pattern was born, initially as a sketch by drawing on influences from the Arts & Crafts movement,” explains Thomson.

Space Creative gave Pukka tea's packaging a completely new and ownable brand look. 

Nearly 20 years later, the design remains virtually unchanged, becoming “a new visual language for the herbal tea market” and spawning a host of imitations. As Thomson points out, it’s hard to quantify exactly how big a part the packaging has played in Pukka’s success – after all, if the product inside isn’t any good, consumers won’t buy it again, however great the packaging. 

But it certainly helped open sales distribution channels, “and getting the product in people’s hands and in their homes is a critical step in building a long-lasting relationship between brand and consumer.” Tellingly, until recently Pukka invested very little in traditional marketing, instead relying on the packaging design to do the heavy lifting. And the kicker? “People still write to Pukka to tell them they’ve got their boxes on permanent display in their kitchen. If ever there was a case for investing in great packaging design, that is surely it.”

Pukka's packaging reflects the brand's values through design. 

From teacups to tattoos: over in the world of craft beer, packaging has gone beyond looking good to become a bona fide art movement. Everyone from Sweden’s Omnipollo, “a creative camp that expresses itself through beer” to Bristol-based brewery Left Handed Giant are turning out cans and bottles designed for drinkers as interested in art as in the amber nectar. 

Beer is aimed at a younger, emergent audience now… This leads to more expressive, experimental aesthetics on the packaging.

“Craft beer designs themselves have become almost more like record sleeves, with back-stories and individual personalities,” says Tim Vary, CD at Design Bridge, who recently worked with brewer Greene King on the design identity of four new beers – more of which later. “Beer is aimed at a younger, emergent audience now, and many brewers have that fresh, modern, entrepreneurial spirit. This leads to more expressive, experimental aesthetics [on the packaging].” 

Beavertown's craft beer packing, designed by Nick Dwyer. 

Featuring a macabre illustrated universe of skulls and space gun-toting skeletons, Beavertown Brewery’s characterful packaging is as popular as its cult beers. “I'm not sure I realised at the time just how good a vessel a beer bottle would be for sci-fi-y, skull-y artwork distribution,” says creative director Nick Dwyer of the radioactive landscape he created for the brand’s Gamma Ray pale ale. 

It can take two years to get a bottle from brief to shelf – and the last thing you need is for something to look outdated before it even goes on sale. That’s where authenticity comes in – if your brand story is rooted in truth, it will always be true.

In an increasingly crowded market, Dwyer reckons it’s the imperfect quality of his designs (“there are a lot of what competent graphic designers would call ‘faults’ – I call it character”) which makes the brand feel accessible – and most importantly, act as a point of difference. “While you want to stand out with flavour, you also have to stand out on the shelf, which is always front of mind for me,” he explains. 

“In the simplest terms, [when I’m designing] I’m looking for people to go: “Oh cool!” and drink the beer. Looking away from what others are up to, and what's working for them, is one of the ways I think we manage to stay fresh.” 

Nick Dwyer working on Beavertown artwork. 

Stranger & Stranger’s Shaw agrees that it’s important not to get sucked into packaging trends and fashions. “It can take two years to get a bottle from brief to shelf – and the last thing you need is for something to look outdated before it even goes on sale. That’s where authenticity comes in – if your brand story is rooted in truth, it will always be true.” Their redesign for Aberfeldy Scotch whisky is a case in point, based on a true USP. 

“There had always been a squirrel on the label, but no one knew why – and let’s face it, anyone can claim a local squirrel as a brand asset.” After some research, the agency discovered that the spring water used to make the whiskey contained traces of gold, which locals used to pan for. That birthed the idea of ‘The Golden Dram’ – a strategy that went on to inform Aberfeldy’s new packaging.

Aberfeldy's new packaging created by Stranger & Stranger. 

The UK’s oldest and largest independent brewery, Greene King, and its agency Design Bridge faced similar issues when launching a suite of new beers for a younger, contemporary market. The brief was to get consumers to radically re-evaluate the brand, and what its heritage and brewing expertise could stand for – but initial ideas focussing on its all-natural ingredients, or ‘masquerading’ as a trendy micro-brewery, tested poorly with consumers as they weren’t seen as authentic and distinct, says Greene King’s Marketing Controller Alex Radcliffe. 

Session IPA Level Head, for example, nods to the legend of St. Edmund, who lost his head to Vikings but miraculously found it again.

Instead, they opted for a vibrant re-interpretation of the brand’s 224-year history, digging through the archives at Bury St Edmunds to unearth eccentric myths and legends of British history linked to the location. 

Brand New Beers Centuries In The Making by Design Bridge 

“Each beer’s ‘style’ is communicated through individual typographical personalities and playful illustrations, with each variant having a bespoke look reflecting the concept,” explains Vary. Session IPA Level Head, for example, nods to the legend of St. Edmund, who lost his head to Vikings but miraculously found it again; the name and typography are meant to reflect the beer’s “balanced, perfectly executed” nature. 

Such is the cachet of craft beer packaging artwork that many brands sell their designs as standalone prints.

Meanwhile the design of Flint Eye, a sharp, crisp lager inspired by Neolithic arrows found near the brewery, recalls “a refreshingly filtered beer that always hits the spot.” “Not many other brands have been in British culture for over 200 years, so we wanted to help the brand embrace its age and heritage,” adds Vary. “[But] creating something different and fresh was crucial, so we chose to accentuate the quirks of the brand’s British tradition, with contemporary, striking styles and colourways.”