Six examples of drinks packaging design inspired by classic and modern art.

The world of packaging design has often taken inspiration from the world of art. From the bright colours and bold imagery of Pop Art to the intricate classical techniques of the 16th century and before. It’s a useful tool to communicate a sense of quality, time and even humour.

Below we look at a few examples of modern drinks packaging taking inspiration from these iconic techniques.

Pop Art

Brooklyn Pulp Art - Thirst Craft

With Brooklyn Brewery already well known within the American market, the beer brand set out to establish a mainstream status for their IPA Haze Craze on a more global scale.

To achieve this, Thirst Craft turned to the world of Pop Art. The movement, born in the same city as the bear brand, was conceived to make art accessible to all, an ethos shared with their IPA mission. Thus, the Glasgow based design agency fused the worlds of art and beer to create Brooklyn Pulp Art: Hazy IPA for the people.

Inspired by Lichtenstein’s signature style of thick black lines, clashing colours and a healthy number of polka dots (or Ben-day dots to use their official title), the Brooklyn badge gets a pop art makeover. These iconic design features with liberal use of colours, and in-your-face typography draw attention and create instant familiarity. Furthermore, the bold background patterns reflect the beer’s bold flavour palette.

Find out more about Thirst Craft here .

Renaissance Art

Serund Wine – Backbone Branding

Serund is a new brand of specialist wine produced by a team of students from the Armenian National Agrarian University. The wine, available as a standard dry red and a reserve dry red, is a result of the “Development of Scientific and Production Component of Wine Education” program, the main goal of which is to improve the winemaking education and scientific-production activities in order to prepare competitive specialists.

Taking into account that the winemakers are students from different generations, Backbone Branding centred the brand concept around the idea of transferral of knowledge, where skills are passed from one generation to another. Thus, the name “SERUND,” which translates to “Generation” was born.

The label visualization takes inspiration from Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” fresco painting. The central illustration depicts a grape vine being passed from one hand to another. The giving hand is one of an elderly person, and the recipient’s hand is that of a young man, symbolizing the passing of knowledge and skills from generation to generation, from the expert to the apprentice, from the master to the knowledge seeker. ‘SERUND’ appears in the clockwise direction, implying a continuous rotation, further characterised in the M.C Escher-esque positioning of the hands symbolizing the cycle of life and forming the visual shape of the letter “S” – the initial letter of “SERUND.”

Find out more about Backbone Branding here .

Classical

Art Fruto Nobel – Isabel Cabello  

Isabel Cabello’s design for Fruto Noble wine collection sets out to capture the elegance and sensuality within the love story of Bacchus, the God of wine and ecstasy, and Princess Ariadne, the symbol of the soul and inspiration.

Fragments of classical paintings depicting scenes of the lovers adorn the labels, each edited in a way that focuses on the eroticism, heightening the sense of sensuality and the forbidden. The soft colours used within the paintings combined with high-end Ispira Bianco Purezza paper, gold stamping, and silkscreen embossing create a sense of quality and variations in finishes provide different sensations to the eye and touch.

Find out more about Isabel Cabello here .

Fine Art

Famous Cider – Depot WPF

Famous is a brand of Cider designed by Depot WPF for Alliance company whose packaging portraits fine art masterpieces reimagined with a comical twist.

The Russian brand agency’s design features The Lute Player by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Son of Man by Rene Magritte and Girl with Peaches by Valentin Serov. The paintings are stripped back showing the subject as a simplified flat graphics made up of geometric shapes and reduced to a block colour scheme. The subjects are portrayed as if having just enjoyed a few bottles of cider, adding an element of humour, The Son of Man slouched against a bar, The Lute Player now singing her heart out, mouth wide open and Girl with Peaches now face down on the table. The softened colour palette gives the classic pieces a more contemporary aesthetic along with their new comic interpretation. The bottles are then wrapped in paper featuring the same illustration, adding a more premium feel and enhancing the opening experience.

Find out more about Depot WPF here .

Art Deco

Tom’s Town Distilling Co. – Kevin Cantrell Studio & Satellite Office

Kansas City distillery Tom’s Town Distilling Co. is named after the country’s most corrupt political boss, Tom Pendergast who started as a saloon keeper and the founder of a wholesale liquor company. Under Tom, Kansas City ignored Prohibition and emerged as the “Paris of the Plains.” When asked how he justified ignoring Prohibition, Pendergast quipped, “The people are thirsty.”

After developing the brand’s strategy and visual language, Kevin Cantrell Studio with Satellite Office were tasked with updating the brand with a custom glass bottle that would reflect the distillery’s history. The custom glass design draws inspiration from Art Deco architecture, evoking the 1920’s grandeur appeal and reflecting the distillery’s prohibition roots. Symmetrical balustrades flank the bottle echoing the dramatic geometry of Kansas City buildings. The brand's slogan, taken from Pendergast’s own words “The People Are Thirsty” accompanied by an embossed double TT monogram appears in the classic art-deco font further exuding 1920’s chic.

Find out more about Kevin Cantrell Studio here and about Satellite Office here .

Contemporary & Street Art

1800 Tequila Essential Artist Series - Various

1800 Tequila Essential Artists project is an annual limited-edition release of bottles with labels designed by young, modern and street artists from Gary Baseman to 80s-era artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

2018 series by Shantell Martin

Their most recent instalment, celebrating 10 years of the limited-edition collection, are the brightly coloured surrealist works of Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel.

The bottles and a corresponding billboard campaign are described by 1800 as a “ new-generation museum that brings art to the people .”

Find out more about the 1800 Tequila Essential Artists project here .

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