TheDieline.com

Bin Wine

"The 'Bins' range started out as a cheeky concept based on many Australian wines using the specific 'bin' number to identify their wines.

In the UK, bins are more commonly associated with refuse and so we thought it may be fun to turn it on its head and use photography of regular bins outside normal peoples' homes in the UK. As is quite common, householders paint their respective house number on their bin to identify it as theirs. Bin 15a is obviously a flat.

Nobody was more surprised than ourselves, when the 'joke' was taken a little more seriously than we had anticipated – the range pictured being produced and finding a willing market in Canada."

Designed by: Dare! of North Yorkshire, UK, specialists in beer, wine and spirits packaging.

Hennessy Black

Hennessy Black's new cognac packaging is a study in contrasts. A black/silver/gray color scheme is elegantly portrayed with impeccable attention to detail. A glossy black finish allows the bottle to better catch the light. The new hot-pressed silver logo block emphasizes the stylized "armed arm". The top of the bottle represents a black chain-mail armor on a gun-colored gray background, which perfectly suits the shape of the metallic cap. The 1785 matte black medallion has been redesigned (although a bit hard to see in this photo) and the informative back label is silk screen printed.

Curius is the design agency behind this design. They  do a lot of work for premium brands. About Curius: Curius offers global and specialized services, making strategy and creation equally important. Created in 2003 by Pascal Viguier, the company applies generous, practical and lively design. They have done work for brands including, Bollinger, Hennessy, Lacoste, MSN, Sodexho and more.

Antoine Amrani Chocolates

Packaging by Smith Design.

See a couple more after the jump.

Dove Deodorant Kit

 
 

The O Group, a strategy and design agency in NYC, created this promotional kit for Dove Deodorant:

"Dove enlisted a team of agencies, The O Group and Cunning Communications, to create word of mouth buzz about their new product, Dove Ultimate Visibly Smooth Deodorant, which reduces the look and feel of underarm hair. The O Group was asked to design a high-end package that would be sent to prominent influencers in the beauty industry. The kit needed to sleekly deliver a product sample along with an informational guide and USB drive.

The package's design picks-up on a visual element that was being used in other campaign materials — a soft gradient from pink to white. The gradient represents the transformation to smoothness that will be experienced when using the new product. A clear acetate slipcase houses the box and has the pink gradient printed on the top. A gradient running in the reverse direction is printed on the lid of the box. When the kit is closed, the opposing gradients form a solid pink surface. When the slipcase is pulled off, a visual transformation from pink to white occurs and the Dove mark is revealed."

Wurrook

Elmwood, a multidisciplinary firm with offices across the world, sent in this packaging the Melbourne branch recently created for a local farmer:

"We designed and printed our pack for a local farmer/lamb producer. The box contains cuts of lamb that are plastic cryovac sealed, labelled up and placed in their cardboard box with branded sleeve. The brand story, as below:

Paul & Kylie Walton own a one hundred and fifty year old sheep farm in country Victoria that has been in their family for four generations. Their farm is set on 7,500 acres and they have 22,000 Superfine Merino sheep that have superior wool and meat using no growth promotants. Due to their growing success at the Farmers Markets they attend, they required a box and label packaging concept that would capture the uniqueness of their product and enable them to move forward into the retail sector.
 
They had no previous packaging or labeling other than a generic sticker, which was produced from a weight labeling machine at their home. The packaging needed to communicate the history, quality, unique stock bloodlines and other special features of the product that is only available from the producers, Wurrook Superfine Prime. Importantly, the resultant packaging had to be cheap to produce.

A sleeve was designed with new branding that could slip over the cardboard box negating the need to have a costly printed box. The new ‘Wurrook’ logo was created (using a level of crafting resonant with fine wines and cheese) but reduced in size, making the Victorian sky, grass and sheep effectively the brand. Product clarity is gained via sheep illustrations on the individual labels to easily inform which part of the sheep the cut’s derive from."

Face Boutique

face boutique is another great find by friend and Dieline reader Angie. What I love is that the products are biodegradable, the packaging is recyclable, and the formulations are not tested on animals in any way.

More info on the company:

face boutique is fast becoming the leading natural skincare brand for teens and twenty-somethings. This sophisticated range has been developed to care for younger skin, without the need for potentially harmful or harsh chemicals. Using the finest botanical ingredients to manage sebum control, breakout reduction, enlarged pores and hormonal imbalances, the products are formulated to help keep girls’ skin clear and healthy and to encourage them to care for their skin for life.

In regards to the packaging, face boutique wanted something minimal but still striking. For a fresh perspective, they selected an innovative fashion design company, Michael Nash Associates, and an up-and-coming illustrator, Stina Persson. The result is a beautiful set of bottles, jars, and tubes that would look stunning on any countertop.

More packaging images after the jump.

Happy Planet Shots

Subplot Design created the packaging for this new entry into the energy shots category. Happy Planet Shots are formulated to address four specific occasions: Energy+, Immunity, Detox and Glow and contain no added sugar, no preservatives and no artificial ingredients:

"Subplot Design’s strategic role involved an extensive audit of the current shots and functional beverage category as well as liaising with Vancouver’s InQuest Consumer Insights & Planning, who conducted in-depth positioning consumer focus groups. Subplot then worked with Happy Planet to create a solid brand positioning strategy, followed by bottle and packaging design. With the vast majority of shots currently in the marketplace concentrating solely on 'Energy' and with a combined taste and design profile resembling a 'toxic explosion', Happy Planet identified a gap in the market for a healthy alternative that addressed the many other occasions in consumers’ fast-paced lives.

Research had identified opportunities to help the packaging stand out at retail and to help communicate the unique attributes of the product. On the one hand, consumers were not interested in packaging which was overly 'natural, organic and hippie', even though these attributes were consistent with the Happy Planet brand and the nature of the product. In fact, the Happy Planet brand itself was so strong, that its 'halo effect' was all the product needed to communicate 'natural' and still appeal to the young, active target market. At the same time, positioning and packaging that 'tried too hard' to be 'hip and cool' or overly 'masculine and aggressive', like other energy drinks, alienated the current Happy Planet consumer, reflected negatively on the rest of the beverage portfolio, and skewed the product to a much younger demographic than had been identified. Research pointed to a clean and modern aesthetic that
bridged the gap between 'natural' and 'contemporary'. Much time and effort was spent creating a bottle that was not only unique, but also environmentally-responsible and cost-effective.

The result is a tall, slender, square-sided bottle with a full shrink-wrap film enabling total coverage of the bottle with graphics. The additional double challenge was to create a cohesive family of products while still giving each occasion a unique, ownable and relevant component specific to the key benefit of that particular shot. The resulting illustrations clearly depict the benefit of the shot; a shield for immunity, a sun for glow, a first-aid cross for detox and a lightening bolt for energy. All occasions are wrapped in a common silver wrap, and the design platform embraces a minimal, clean aesthetic which appeals to the active-lifestyle consumer. Given the small nature of the bottle it was decided to run all type vertically on the cover panel to maximize legibility on shelf, and to leave room for the many legal packaging considerations that come with Natural Health Products packaging."

More images after the jump.

Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company

Rick Dobbs owns a small ad/design shop called Unreal in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He sent in this packaging he did for Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company, and it was just as interesting to read the backstory--with its distinctly Southern twang permeating the words--as it was to look at the bottles.

"One of my prize clients is a small craft brewery name Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company based out of Kiln, Mississippi. They were almost done in by hurricane Katrina when the storm took out half their facilities and inundated most of their stock. Lazy Magnolia had only been in business for just under a year when the storm hit.

After Katrina they busted butt and came back raging full on bound and determined to not be beat like that. Sense of community and region was thick after the storm and people were all about supporting local businesses. The brewery flourished with flying colors. Right after business starting booming they began to look for a re-brand. Me being from the Mississippi Gulf Coast they were already on my radar screen and I had called on them several times before, but was patient yet persistent. It paid off and we formed a partnership that has resulted in us growing together.

Our first order of business was to re-brand the brewery itself, then the brews and then on to labeling/packaging. So far we have labeled/packaged their first three brews – Southern Pecan, Indian Summer and Reb Ale. We have two more to go – Jefferson Stout and Southern Gold.

Southern Pecan is a smooth and sweet, English-style brown ale brewed with real roasted pecans. Indian Summer is a spiced ale brewed with orange peel and coriander. Reb Ale is a crisp and hoppy, deep south pale ale."