SELF DIRECTED 4 / Sloe Gin Packaging _ Collab

Sloe Gin Packaging - Collaboration | Rinesh Mistry

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Research
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Wiki

Sloe gin is a red liqueur made with gin and sloe (blackthorn) drupes, which are a small fruit relative of the plum. Sloe gin has an alcohol content between 15 and 30 percent by volume. However, the European Union has established a minimum of 25% ABV for sloe gin to be named as such. The traditional way of making sloe gin is to soak the sloes in gin. Sugar is required to ensure the sloe juice is extracted from the fruit.

Many commercial sloe gins today are made by flavouring less expensive neutral grain spirits, although some manufacturers still use the traditional method.

Recipes
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Link

Link

Link

Exisiting Brands and Packaging

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Starting to design_


Inspiration_

Initial designs_

(PICS)


After doing some quick designs on paper I started to create a digital version. Just using the pen tool. I made different variations of this, a lot of very slight ones, paying attention to detail. 

I tried making the angles of the lines the same to improve the design. 

And then Nesh came up with the to make the lines at a 30 degree angle. 

As myself and Nesh had a lot of our own work to get on with including competition briefs, we had almost a two week break from working on this project and then decided to have another full day together just designing.

We met up, and looking back on the logo, we thought it was awful. So we started from scratch but with the same idea to try and create.


I started by writing out THIRTY with the pen tool in a completely original typeface that fitted with our aesthetic. Like the last one I took Nesh's idea to make all the angles of the letter to 30 degrees.

So ended up with this. 

We both really liked how this looked. 

Nesh then had the idea of maybe breaking up the word and placing them on top of each other. So I then altered the design to create something like this. 

This is what I created, which again was a huge step forward and we both really liked it. 

I kept playing around with different elements of it, taking input from Neshy aswell. 

We made the stroke inside separating them larger which looked better and was clearer.

By the end of the day we had this. A strong potential final logo design. Neshy cleaned up all the letters making sure everything was neat and perfect. 

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Before our next work session, I decided to do some more research into bottle packaging and labels.

WEDNESDAY_

We met up on Wednesday to have a day designing again. 

Thinking about the label design, there were four ways to go. 

I liked the idea of having the label to one side, allowing more of the deep red of the sloe gin to show more. 

I starting doing a few designs for a label that would work with this format. 

The logo that I had was the unrefined one that Nesh had cleaned up. So I then got the updated one off him to then place this into the label designs. 

It was then a matter of placing the letters in the form of the logo. 

One thing myself and Nesh didn't agree on at first was the dot above the i, however after comparing both of these, I started to change my mind. The three circles within the r, i and y worked really well. Plus this further took the idea of thirty with three circles. 

We also decided on the bottles that we were going to buy. 

Now that we've found the bottle, we can order them and go further with the packaging as to find out what will work best we will need to do tests on the bottles. 

We also thought as the bottles we had chosen had wooden topped corks, we could laser cut the logo onto this. 

We discussed the labels, and within the ones I had designed, as they were split into sections, we thought that potentially we could actually split the sections into individual labels. 

Rinesh was playing around with the accompanying typeface of 'sloe gin' with the logo. 

(PICS)

After trying quite a few different typefaces, we both felt that futura worked by far the best. We also played around a lot with the placement of 'sloe gin' with the thirty logo. 

We eventually decided on these two placements. 

After the day we decided that we would both go away and research more into how we could box and package the bottle. 

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PACKAGING RESEARCH

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MEETING / WORK DAY

Decisions_

From the research of packaging we both did, we both really liked the idea of doing a paper wrap, instead of something like a box. 

So we decided that we would pursue this and aim to try out variations experimenting with this concept. 

For the label design, we needed to order the bottles before we could make final decisions, so in the mean time, we can make a series of variations estimating the dimensions, and when the bottles arrive alter them if needed and make final decisions when we can mock them up properly. 

What goes on the bottle label?

- logo
- Alcohol percentage (30.0%)
- amount (500ml)
- distilled in Cambridge
- bottled in London 
- small blurb
- calories/energy (nutrition info)
- ingredients
- barcode

Blurb - 'This quintessentially British liqueur is deliciously dry and warming on its own or mixed with champagne for a Sloepagne cocktail. Our sloe gin is deliberately blended to produce a drier and more sophisticated taste than some more traditional recipes.'


We tested out label designs and the packaging wrap design. 

I went to the supermarket to find a bottle of sloe gin to see what the label included. Interestingly they didn't provide any ingredients. 

We met up again to look again at label and packaging designs to finalise the design. 

Tests_

The size and placement of the label was decided, there were just small details to finalise. 

We decided against the boarder, so the label was just white, with the logo and text. 

For the wrap we realised we needed an A2 circle for it to be the right size and shape to then wrap around the bottle. 

The label designs just need a design picking. We had the information and the logo sorted, just small details needed to be decided. 

Final decisions_




Wrap_

Thursday - Preparing for print. 

Putting it all together_

Once we had printed, we then needed to put everything together ready to photograph. We filled the bottles with a liquid the same colour as slow gin. And bought the rope that would tie around the neck of the bottle to hold the wrap in place.

For the wrap we needed a circle, so from the prints we laser cut them out so we had a perfect circle instead of cutting with scissors as this would have been a bit messy. 

We fitted the labels on the bottles, trying to get them as straight as possible. 

The applied the wraps. 

We added black tissue paper underneath the wrap. 

Then we went off to photograph the bottles. 

Final photos_

We were both really happy with the outcome. The photos looked great. All we needed to do now was to produce some mock ups for promotional material. 


Promotional material_