Award-winning packaging design agency Design Activity has gone back to nature with its latest project – creating a ‘wild’ botanical design for organic drinks company Still Wild.
The brainchild of food and drink enthusiast James Harrison-Allen, Still Wild produces cold-distilled spirits using hand-foraged natural botanicals from Pembrokeshire.
Still Wild has been a life-long dream for Harrison-Allen, whose love of natural flavours began as a child when he used to pick wild garlic and elderflower. He developed his passion for unique flavour combinations while working as a chef and soon began to experiment with home-made liqueurs and spirits.
Then five years ago, Harrison-Allen decided to turn his passion into a vocation. He bought his first Still and spent years perfecting his signature product – Vermouth – and Still Wild was born.
Harrison-Allen opened his distillery last year and started producing his two signature products – a sweet Rosso and an extra dry Vermouth – but knew that if he was going to communicate the true nature of his brand, getting the packaging right was vital.
“When starting an adventure, it’s difficult to navigate all the priorities, but it was clear that a great pack design would be absolutely crucial for my brand,” Harrison-Allen explained.
“Still Wild is all about the ingredients and I wanted to be able to communicate the ‘wild’ and ‘organic’ nature of the product, not just in the design of the packaging but also in the materials used.”
Harrison-Allen then began the process of finding an agency he believed would understand what he was trying to achieve and be able to create a design that was able to embody the true nature of the brand.
“I searched online for examples of packaging I admired and found Design Activity through an amazing gin bottle design they had done. They made a real point of getting to know me and my brand and have created a truly distinctive identity and pack design that has brought Still Wild to life.”
Mark Stubbington, Design Director at Design Activity adds: “When we first met James, we could see he had a true passion for his products – they had been expertly crafted over many years, so it was important that the packaging not only represented the product he had created but the story behind it too.
“James wanted his brand to be a combination of natural meets modern and minimal, so we fused clean modern lines with natural colours, shapes and imagery to create Still Wild’s signature design.”
The elegant bottle is sprayed bespoke ‘Still Wild’ green, while the label – made from natural paper stock as a nod to Still Wild’s organic roots – is hexagon-shaped, creating an ownable and instantly recognisable style. This is then hand applied over a beautiful screen-printed illustration of the botanicals used in each vermouth.
Stubbington adds: “We worked very closely and collaboratively with James through the whole journey, embracing his vision and expert knowledge of his products to help guide him through not only the design process but helping with sourcing, production and logistics too – everything needed to bring Still Wild to market.”
Harrison-Allen says that, with a limited budget, Design Activity has gone “way beyond their design obligation” helping him with sourcing, production, and logistics.
“I hadn’t appreciated the scale and complexity of all things needed to bring a brand to market,” he said “but with Design Activity’s hands-on involvement every single step of the way, it has enabled me to create something special in Still Wild, which I am confident will be a great success.”
Source: Design Activity
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