Epboards6

Concept

AN ALCOHOL RETAILERS FOR SOCIAL CLIMBERS AND HIGH ACHIEVERS. High Spirits is a distillery and fine wines and spirits retailer based in London. The brand’s tone of voice is intended to be light hearted but luxe, to create an engaging retail experience that distinguishes High Spirits from other competing retailers.

The primary audience would be affluent young professionals who enjoy spending their earnings on high quality food and drink, and prefer to shop in smaller, independent shops.

Elizabeth Tyrer

Brief #6

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High Spirits

Research

Research involved looking into packaging for high end and artisan spirits, as well as the branding of smaller alcohol retailers. Many of the most successful products we found combined traditional label elements with a contemporary finish, and metallic colours

were a recurring feature of many labels.

Quirky imagery and typography were also notable for their ability to distinguish a brand from its competitors and create something that was desirable and treasurable.

Elizabeth Tyrer

Brief #6

OUGD603

High Spirits

Research

Unusual bottles were another feature of our research, as the distinctive designs were more engaging and memorable and would therefore encourage greater customer engagement.

Elizabeth Tyrer

OUGD603

Brief #6

High Spirits

The Development

We wanted the logo to be sophisticated but also playful and quirky, and so we looked to experiment with imagery related to height and the name of the brand. We looked at hot air balloons, kites and ladders, before settling on the use of ladders. We came up with the

tagline ‘for social climbers and high achievers’ which connects the brand’s middle class audience to the imagery. The ladder symbol can then be used as a separate logo mark, or incorporated into the H. We had originally wanted to apply the logo to a cork coaster as

Elizabeth Tyrer

Brief #6

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we felt this would be more original and than simply printing out business cards, but due to our tight budget and lack of appropriate facilities we were unable to achieve the right look for this to work successfully.

High Spirits

The Design

Elizabeth Tyrer

OUGD603

Brief #6

High Spirits

The Design

We focused on creating a packaging range for the brand’s distillery that included limited run bottles, labels and a gift box and bag. The range features unusually shaped bottles that distinguish the High Spirit’s brand from its competitors, whilst the wooden gift box and

black and gold bag are all designed to heighten the sense of luxury and make the range feel collectable, almost like a keepsake.

Three label designs have been created, one for each spirit the distillery produces: rum, vodka and gin. The labels would be printed

Elizabeth Tyrer

Brief #6

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blank and then written onto by hand: this adds a personal touch to the packaging, making the product feel more special and luxurious. The labels include the number of the bottle so the consumer knows that they possess a limited edition alcohol.

High Spirits

The Design

A metallic colour palette and traditional print processes such as stamping have been used to communicate the brand’s focus on luxury and quality. Relating to the supporting copy ‘for social climbers and high achievers’, the quirky ladder imagery becomes a playful icon

of both the labels and the branding and is featured in both a traditionally etched style, as well as a simplified icon, which again plays on the brand name.

Elizabeth Tyrer

Brief #6

OUGD603

High Spirits