Fresh From The Field — Curatif - By Marx Design

Fresh From The Field — Curatif – By Marx Design

Fresh from the Field is a weekly article series sharing the fresh and inspiring work of our Design Assembly community.

Marx Design walk us through their redesign for Curatif’s cocktails Essentials range. Building upon the playful illustrative approach of the existing range, the team at Marx brought the energy of the drink’s provenance, history and occasion to life with collaged scenes out of nostalgic imagery to create a carefully managed balance of indulgent irreverence.

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The Brief:

Fast growing, Melbourne based Curatif offer an ever increasing range of award winning, bar-worthy cocktails – all served in a can for your convenience. Their products are split into two ranges, the playful, casual poolside-party inspired ‘Escape’ range and the more formal ‘black tie’ premium ‘Essentials’.

Our task was to redesign the Essentials range (Negroni, Espresso Martini and Rum Old Fashioned) and bring it in line with the playful personality of the Escape range without losing the mature sophistication and premium cues in the process. The design system also needed to accommodate a changing roster of partner spirit brands who’s logos need to be included in the packaging.

The Design Response:

Building on the playful illustrative approach of the existing range, we stripped each cocktail down to its origins, creating irreverent and surreal collaged scenes out of nostalgic imagery. This brought the energy of the drink’s provenance, history and occasion to life, complimented by taste credentials of their classic garnishes. The result is a carefully managed balance of indulgent irreverence that celebrates the social occasion they are enjoyed in.

A touch of gold foil elevates the range to a more luxurious position above the Escape range and gives another nod to the ‘evening attire’ occasions the drinks are meant for. Product navigation is achieved through colour and simple geometric iconography of the how the cocktails are served, placed front and centre on pack.

To launch the range we were commissioned to shoot a series of scenes that capture the spirit of the cocktails with subtle narratives adorned in almost dream-like vintage settings, bringing the quality of the product and essence of the brand to life.

Curatif is a brand that aspires to deliver premium authenticity and undeniable luxury in every single cocktail they make. The new packaging now delivers on that aspiration in a unique and ownable way which can flex and respond to future product ideas and collaborations as needed.