Responses by CF Napa Brand Design.
Background: We designed the packaging for Coppercraft Distillery’s bespoke gin created in partnership with the Detroit Tigers major league baseball team. This exclusive gin, sold in the stadium just 416 feet from home plate, needed to be a home run, capturing the spirit and history of America’s favorite pastime and the storied history of the Detroit Tigers.
Design thinking: Our design solution was a vintage look celebrating the ballpark, the fans and the Tigers’s storied past. Distressed text and design elements combined with a custom pen-and-ink illustration of Comerica Park, the Tigers’s home turf, formed the main visuals. A seal with the Detroit Tigers’s D acted as the final stamp of approval.
Challenges: The very aggressive timeline with only two weeks to develop from start to finish.
Visual influences: We were inspired by classical baseball Americana memorabilia, particularly the limited color palettes, hand-drawn visuals and eclectic typography utilized on historic baseball scorebooks, season schedules and tickets.
Favorite details: We’re most proud of the simplicity of the design and how effectively it captures the nostalgic sensibilities of America’s favorite pastime combined with the cobranding of the gin. With nostalgic designs like this, it’s easy to get carried away and overly fussy. The solution here resists those urges and strikes the proper balance between simple honesty and historical authenticity.
Time constraints: Because of the aggressive timeline, we researched existing illustrations of the ballpark instead of commissioning completely new ones. We ultimately worked with an artist to purchase their existing illustration of the ballpark with a few minor edits allowing for both rapid “buy-in” on the final design from the distillery and the Detroit Tigers’s organization within days. We ultimately launched the brand—from design to being sold at the ballpark—within two months.
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