A freelance project: 2020-21. Illustration and bottle label design.
I worked with a distiller to create a bottle label for a new, classic gin they were creating. Based in the Cotswold's, a beautiful Wildly Crafted handmade bottle had already been chosen which represented the water and nature around the landscape. The brand message was to be classic and exude quality.
As a start to the research, the client asked me to explore:
- The ancient mill, mentioned in the Doomsday book, that the gin is made in.
- Arts and Crafts movement
- Art Nouveau
I worked up some scamps and bottle concepts:
After some more conversations, we moved onto fairies and magic, with a link to the fables surrounding the waters in the Cotswolds and we pursued the idea of a fairy queen, or "Oude Queen" in the medallion, instead of 'Oude' wording.
I started to draw some initial ideas of her and developed them to the below two:
I worked up the below label. A faded wave pattern and shaped edges to the label, all indicitive of water. The client was keen to include illustrations of trouts, which are a familiar sight in the Cotswolds. They were also looking to use a background colour which could, over time, be distinctively Oude.
