Marx Design was asked to create a promotional gift pack for StrangeLove, a new organic energy elixir. The brief was to create something strange yet lovely, in the hope that bar and café owners would display it at point-of-sale.
Moving away from traditional energy drink marketing (think starbursts and garish colours), StrangeLove adopted the approach that: “Most energy drinks make you look like you’ve been kissing your cousin under the bleachers at the Parramatta Speedway. They scream premium but relentlessly hum Bon Jovi songs under their breath. Our packaging philosophy is simple – make something that people want to show their friends”.
Buoyed by this fresh approach, we wanted the design to feel eclectic and intriguing, like something you would find in an old encyclopedia or Ripley’s Believe It or Not. The design is a combination of strange and love – when the two subjects are brought together visually the design reflects this.
The imagery and illustration is quite dark and the copywriting is very funny. The whole design is a series of contrasting opposites, for example, a harsh nearly gothic typeface and then a friendly sans serif; an accident skull and a beautiful French actress.
The StrangeLove gift pack consisted of one bottle of StrangeLove ginger beer, one bottle opener complete with love heart and rat, metal straws, a cocktail straw, promotional cards about the product and a deck of illustrated playing cards illustrated by Colombian collage artist Randy Mora. The result is indeed strange but lovely.
(Source: marxdesign.co.nz)
