Potemkin Luxe

Agency: SHUMI LOVE DESIGN (TM) Branding Agency
Creative & Design Director: Valerii Sumilov
Designer: Val Noizman
Visualizer: Maxim Kulikov
Location: Moldova
Project Type: Produced
Client: Южная Винокурня
Product Launch Location: Ukraine
Packaging Contents: Brandy, beverage
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Glass bottle, paper
Printing Process: Printing, stamping, embossing, tactile varnish, selective varnish

A comprehensive design of the POTEMKIN LUXE brandy is the next stage of strategy development for the POTEMKIN brand.

This time around, we worked with a bottle provided by the brandy manufacturer. Through various marketing considerations, the manufacturer decided on this shape.

Despite its striking look and memorability, the bottle is not without significant disadvantages, namely:

1. excessive plasticity
2. excessive softness of shape
3. feminine presence

Given the fact that consumers of brandy are predominantly men, these shortcomings can be considered fundamental. The shape of the bottle and its plasticity can cause rejection in male customers, as well as create undesired associations with products aimed at women.

As a branding agency, we faced a challenge to counter the shortcomings of the bottle shape and find a way to sell the product to the male audience by finding the right graphic strategy.

While working on the positioning, we adjusted and outlined the target market for the product. This concept is the result of our analytical, branding and consulting labor.

We carefully stitched a classic Italian suit into this concept, adding certain integral recognition markers designed to work on the subconscious level, such as:

1. jacket lapel
2. cufflink
3. pinstripe

Regarding the target market, we believe to have clearly defined the group of male consumers whom this product will appeal to. In the branding, we have reflected the following set of associations and qualities desirable for men:

1. elegance
2. masculinity
3. impeccable quality

What’s Unique?
On a separate note, we would like to mark the post-press technologies implemented in this project. The complexity of its polygraphic process allows this project to be compared to a Swiss watch. It is the final assembly of all post-press technologies that ties the concept together and brings it to life, making its heart beat at the envisioned frequency. There are no random solutions baked into it; not a single post-press technology was added simply to serve as eye candy. Every technique has been carefully calibrated and assigned a clear function; each effect falls in line with the overarching branding and graphic strategy.