Who doesn’t love good coffee & great cocktails? This amazing espresso spirit is what happens when you get a bunch of baristas and bartenders together to taste and test different coffee blends and various spirits. Inspired by this collaboration, we delivered an award-winning solution rooted in hands-on craft and creativity.
Diageo approached Vault49 with an award-winning liquid that they wanted to re-launch. Originally released in 2002, our brief was to re-position and re-design Grind to make it more relevant to consumers today.
Our consumers regard their coffee in a similar way to a cocktail: they want it to be perfectly crafted, prepared by an expert, and containing authentic, quality ingredients.
We saw a great opportunity in the shared semiotics of these two worlds and looked to capitalize on this natural link. Vintage coffee shop window signs and bar mirrors informed the wordmark and brand icon, while chalkboard art informed the typographic and illustrative styling.
To retain an authentic and crafted feel we commissioned a chalkboard artist to create the label art on a grand scale. Tiny ‘flaws’, such as uneven strokes and character blemishes reinforced the integrity of the final label design, secondary packaging and activation materials.
Grind was launched nationally in the US in Fall 2015 and our design solution won a Silver medal at the 2016 San Francisco World Spirits competition.
