Knockout expresses Bombay Sapphire’s citrus provenance in minimalist-maximalist gin bottle design

24 Nov 2021 --- Alcohol beverage design agency Knockout has created a fresh look for a new Bombay Sapphire premium gin called Premier Cru Murcian Lemon. 

The new bottle is “taller and more lithe,” featuring a gold-yellow color palette and citrus groves etched onto the side panels. 

The white label offers a fine cotton-touch paper for added luxury and depicts an embossed golden “Premier Cru” mark in cursive, creating “a lovely tension between the authority and opulence.”

Still, the gin’s new aesthetic features are designed to elevate Bombay Sapphire’s signature elements – a four-sided marine blue bottle depicting a jewel-framed Queen Victoria portrait on an arched monolith label.

Walking the design tightrope
“Elevating has tiers,” Dominic Burke, founder and creative director at Knockout, tells PackagingInsights. 

The new bottle is “taller and more lithe” than the original Bombay Sapphire gin.“There are extremely high-end, rare offerings that can be quite opulent and then there are more subtle ones that simply have more details and layers of discovery.” 

Innova Market Insights data highlights 57% of global consumers agree a familiar brand that has changed its package design captures their attention.

“But when designing, you’ve got to be reflective of your price point and realistic about the flex of your brand. It can go wrong if the design is a disconnect from the core brand,” Burke flags.

Winning with words
The new design’s main role is to spotlight the story behind Premier Cru Murcian Lemon’s artisan citrus fruits – the standout ingredient used to make the new gin.

“Storytelling: Winning With Words” was crowned Innova Market Insights’ top F&B trend for 2020 and continues into this year’s leading trend “Transparency Triumphs,” which details how captivated F&B consumers are more prone toward brand loyalty.

According to the market researcher, 51% of global consumers agree storytelling adds to the brand’s credibility.

Driven by ingredient provenance
Bombay Sapphire Premier Cru Murcian Lemon celebrates Bombay Sapphire’s master of botanicals Ivano Tonutti’s “personal, long-standing relationships with the small family growers of Murcian Lemons,” Burke explains. 

The bottom third of the label highlights the fruits’ origins twice, in the “Murcian Lemon” and “From the Mercian region, Spain” marks. 

The cork stopper with its engraved rose-gold cap delivers “a more premium feel.”“It’s a very provenance-driven, human-centric story for a much more cared for, considered proposition.” For example, the front label underscores the gin contains “hand selected exotic botanicals.”

Moreover, the etched side panel illustrations place the Mediterranean lemons directly into consumers’ hands to emphasize the citruses are hand picked and hand peeled from the late harvest, when their aromas and flavors are most intense.

Material choice and tactility further progress the sensory experience. The cork stopper features an engraved rose-gold cap, while the fine cotton-touch paper and tactile lettering “enhance the super-premium experience,” Burke explains, but also “convey the story with subtleness and intimacy.”

The design is finalized with the signatures of Bombay Sapphire’s Tonutti and master distiller Dr. Anne Brock, which serve as a seal of approval of the gin’s craft and quality.

Selective maximalism
The etched lemon illustrations stand out from Knockout’s typical side panel decorations on previous Bombay Sapphire designs. 

Bombay Bramble and Bombay Sapphire Sunset, both designed by Knockout, feature glass embossings on the side panels, but in smaller variants than seen on Premier Cru Murcian Lemon.

The motif is illustrated in “maximalist style,” which Burke explains as a “more is more” art and design aesthetic. “It is a highly bold and expressive approach, overflowing and generous.” 

However, the lemon grove illustration is the only design element taking a maximalist approach, “balanced with the refined minimalism of the rest of the design,” he adds.

PackagingInsights recently delved into the dos-and-don’ts of minimalist design in F&B packaging in a Special Report.

The etched side panel illustrations place the Mediterranean lemons directly into consumers’ hands.Balancing between old and new
Burke has worked on the Bombay Sapphire brand for the past decade and maintains bringing together new flavor offerings within a very established, quite classic design architecture can be a challenge.

“That’s exactly what we faced in designing Premier Cru Murcian Lemon. We explored staying very close to the core and then going way far out with really different, avant-garde design.”

However, avant-garde “didn’t quite fit” with the brand’s current strategy. Instead, balancing the bottle layout with the classic design’s authenticity creates “excitement with new details,” reflecting small-batch craftsmanship and communicating flavor refreshment.

“Getting all of these elements to work together – that was the real trick,” Burke concludes.

 By Anni Schleicher