Cheers to alcoholic beverages: Trends in whiskey, gin and craft beer packaging designs

15 Dec 2021 --- Design in the alcoholic beverage category has a myriad of complex factors to consider. For example, brands often emphasize family heritage, historical roots, hand selected ingredients and pure distillation. 

However, design can be most impactful when it combines both aesthetic disruption and distinctiveness with credibility.

PackagingInsights speaks to drinks design specialists Denomination, Knockout and Robot Food about the distinctive features of whiskey, gin and craft beer designs, respectively. 

They also share their thoughts on managing labeling requirements, environmental considerations and the increasing shift toward emotionality in alcoholic beverage storytelling.

Whiskey changing style
Whiskey, gin and craft beer do not typically adhere to similar design structures and visual elements. “Traditionally, whiskey language has been about traditional typography, borders, warm color palettes and small details,” explains Rowena Curlewis, CEO at Denomination.

For example, age statements continue to be a key identifier for whiskies, and so prominent use of “12 Years Old” or “18 Years Old” is likely to be attributed more to whiskey than other alcohol beverage categories.

However, Curlewis has seen typical whiskey design beginning to change, especially as New World whiskey from Australia, Japan, Taiwan and Korea continue to increase in popularity. 

“There is a lot more creative freedom and expression in these whiskies, in comparison to Scotland, and so a reduction of the classic whiskey cues has occurred.”

Denomination created the design behind Australian distillery Battery Point’s first whiskey launch, centering on the blue rings that were painted on the distillery’s first barrels. The colorway – the fresh blue and wood of the distillery’s barrels and an off-white – is clean and vibrant to reflect the pure environment of Tasmania, where Battery Point is based.Bombay Sapphire’s new citrus-flavored gin communicates ingredient provenance from top to bottom.

Ingredient provenance on gin bottles
Considering most spirits celebrate their provenance in some form, Dominic Burke, founder and creative director at Knockout, highlights gin “glorifies its English roots.”

“Gin takes on a bit of nostalgia for the late 19th century as well, which is when England changed distillation laws allowing people to make gin at home.”

While the legacy of historical provenance is “still very present” in the category, Burke also points out a shift toward stronger communication of the ingredients on gin packaging. 

“Telling a botanical story has been a rich area for design because there is such a range of different ingredients as well as a range of illustration and depiction styles.” 

For example, Knockout’s latest work on Bombay Sapphire Premier Cru Murcian Lemon showcases the handpicked citrus fruits with a bright color and a maximalist illustration of an abundant grove of ripe Murican lemons.

Knockout also provided customized designs for Bombay Sapphire’s Bramble and Sunset variants, each time tailoring visual details to the specific flavor palettes.

“Anything goes” in craft beer sector
Whiskey and gin bottle designs may generally be cautious in their visual presentation. However, craft beer is gaining a reputation for its “fearless approach of anything goes,” according to Simon Forster, founder and executive creative director at Robot Food.

“You occasionally see spirits and wine, for example, breaking all rules, but it’s this maverick, no-holds-barred approach the whole craft beer sector seems to be owning. It could be down to the sheer size of the category, with the hundreds of newcomers trying to carve their niche against the last crazy approach that came out.” 

Robot Food is the creative mind behind craft beer Vocation’s brand rebranding. Until this new branding work, the can designs emphasized the beers’ names rather than the brewery’s in a bid to be “beer-first.” 

With the brewery’s aim to sell more on-trade, it became vital Vocation had a branding system that united its offer and amplified brand recognition. 

“For me, it’s this competition that has led to the overall escalation of the category. Does this mean we are approaching a ceiling in terms of anything new coming out? Who knows, it’s craft beer after all,” Forster muses.Denomination made sure to incorporate Battery Point’s distinctive blue barrel rims into the final bottle and casing design.

Finding love for mandatory labeling
Different regional markets have different labeling requirements. There are international specificities regarding name and type of beverage, manufacturing date, supplier identification, country of origin, storage directions and viable shelf life.

Labeling alcohol content also varies. According to the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking, alcohol content must be expressed as a percentage by volume in the US, China and Australia. However, in Malaysia and Tunisia, it is sufficient to solely indicate the product contains alcohol.

“The key to dealing effectively with the alcoholic beverage labeling requirements is to embrace them, not ignore them,” flags Curlewis. “Too many designers don’t know how to deal with them, and so they ignore them and then the design suffers as they try to shoehorn their solution to align with the requirements.” 

Forster agrees “squeezing everything in” can be detrimental to design if not done correctly. For Battery Point’s debuting design, Denomination opted for a more condensed font to adhere to the regulatory requirements, but also provided more breathing room for the design on pack. 

“We also had to consider the type of substrates used for can and bottle labels, as they are often labeled in wet environments. We were conscious to ensure the substrates chosen would hold up in such extreme conditions without falling apart.”

Burke at Knockout highlights labeling requirements can also create opportunities in creating digital links to augmented reality experiences – “elevating and connecting the purpose of the packaging into a door to the brand’s world.”

All I want for Christmas
As Christmas crawls closer by the day, environmental sustainability will be a key consideration in designing gift packaging for the gift giving season. “The first trend I think we’ll start to see in general is a reframing of ’sustainable’ and what that means, especially in the wake of the greenwashing crackdown,” says Forster.

“Everyone is slightly more conscious about waste and consumers may feel a bit uncomfortable with overly embellished, unnecessarily extravagant packaging,” Burke adds.

“We’ll see brands taking a minimalistic approach to creating limited edition gift packs and being a bit more frugal with their environmental impact.”

Last year, PackagingInsights captured not only joyful Christmas packaging designs, but also environmentalists’ criticism of the waste they create.

Consequently, Curlewis expects to see more natural paperstocks and colors, less foil/bling, reduced/no plastic, and “more attention given to craft to project premium-ness without relying on production embellishments.”Vocation’s previous design focused on the beer’s, not the brand’s name. Growing fast, Vocation’s name now takes center stage to better distinguish the brand.

Storytelling provides credibility
Specifically in the alcoholic drinks sector – known for being “more of an impulsive want than an everyday need” – Forster predicts to see design that leans toward emotion.

“Consumers are shifting away from mindless purchasing and considering their consumption habits more consciously, scrutinizing the brands they buy from and whether they’re worth the money – both from a functional and emotional point of view,” he says. 

Therefore, he expects to see design communicating not just flavor and taste, but rather a sense of pleasure, mood and story.

For example, connecting with consumers on an emotional level was important in helping Vocation distinguish itself in the craft beer category. “[It was vital to] articulate the meaning behind the name and showing consumers they weren’t just a big corp masquerading as an indie,” Forster explains.

Giving the gift of experience
Ultimately, packaging is a design storyteller, bridging communication between giver and receiver. “Packaging needs to align with this whether it’s more about experience, secondary use or an element of fun or discovery that does not jar with the zeitgeist that wants sustainability,” Burke highlights.

“The joy of gift-giving will not just be in the aesthetic, but in the level of engagement it creates,” he concludes.

By Anni Schleicher