a great story will sell anything
To bring value to a product that has no USP. I embedded it into the core history of Norways national history.
The essence of exclusive alcoholic products is the inheritance of the brand and/or the storage time of the product. Since Gin does not have a particularly long storage time it is all up the brand if its exclusive or not.
I needed a concept that could confirm the exclusivity and give the brand added value. Not just another 5$ product in a fancy package.
I wanted to make it Norwegian. I went to the library and tried figure out "what is the essens of Norway" Then I remember a trick my history teacher learn me 20 year earlier. "The "important" history of a country is often depicted on there money" That narrowed my research down.
I simultaneously started researching GIN and found that there was a dispute about the origin. The physician Franciscus Sylvius has been falsely credited with the invention of gin in the mid-17th century. It is further claimed that English soldiers in the Eighty Years' War (1585), were drinking GIN for its calming effects before battle. This gave me a timeline to furter narrow my search.
With inn this timeline Norway was under the rule of Denmark and there where several wars. Norway wanted its independence and where desperately seeking identity markers to distance it self from Denmark.
THE STORY OF A.O.VINJE:
A.O. VINJE (1818 –1870) IS CONSIDERED TO BE A ESSENTIAL PART OF NORWEGIAN HISTORY. ALLOWING HIM BE DEPICTED ON THE NORWEGIAN 50 KRONER BILL. HE WAS A NORWEGIAN AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST THAT WAS ONE OF THE FIRST TO ACTIVELY USE THE NORWEGIAN NATIONAL LANGUAGE, AND THE FIRST WHO CONSISTENTLY USED THE DIALECT (NYNORSK WRITTEN) IN PROSE. HE WAS A PIONEER IN NORWEGIAN JOURNALISM AND A RENOWNED AUTHOR.
IN HIS YOUTH A.O. VINJE WORKED AS A SHEPHERD ON THE LOCAL FARMS TO EARN MONEY FOR SCHOOL. BUT HE ALSO MADE A INCOME BY BREWING ILLIGAL SPIRITS. A.O. VINJE WAS AN ACTIVE MOUNTAIN HICKER AND GAVE NAME TO THE FAMOUS MOUNTAIN RANGE JOTUNHEIMEN WHITCH IS THE HIGHEST MOUNTAINS IN NORTHERN EUROPE.
GIN (LATIN: JUNIPERUS COMMUNIS) GIN IS A SPIRIT FLAVORED WITH JUNIPER BERRIES AND CAN BE STORED IN WOODEN BARRELS FOR AGING.
THE DESIGN:
I use materials that is true to the time and place A.O. Vinje lived. The box is covered with juniper bushe veneer. The inside of the box is covered in dark gray wool. The bottle has a modern shape with a cap made of juniper wood and silver. The design of the label is engraved and added bronze and gold to lift the text from the clear, transparent background. The typography of the main logo is a modern remake of old Norwegian typography dating back to the Viking age. On the front of the bottle one of A.O. Vinje`s most famous poems is engraved.
