Back by popular demand,
By Ron Romanik
In November of 2008, marketing consultant Heidi Wells was working with NFL great Drew Bledsoe and well-known winemaker Chris Figgins on the marketing of a new wine venture. Bledsoe had just retired from a 14-year pro football career and was interested in starting a new venture with Chris, his childhood friend.
The team called on Kendall Ross, a brand and design firm in Seattle, because of their retail design portfolio and deep background in launching new brands. Kendall Ross delivered an award-winning bottle design that was the center of a comprehensive brand campaign that included naming, brand identity and brand strategy, bottle and label design, website, signage, event launch collateral, and marketing business collateral.
"Design and marketing are not mutually exclusive," says Kendall Ross principal David Kendall. "Our work is now more integrated. It is no longer about execution of a single component. This complex cross-pollination of creative ideas is driving disciplines to act in terms of a more comprehensive, unified solution."
The clarity of message
One of the major design criteria was not to reflect anything related to the previous lives of the Doubleback brand owners. This was not a project about an ex-athlete capitalizing on his fame. It was about starting a new chapter in one's life. A constant element throughout the design development process was to create packaging elements that would be unique in design, materials, and presentation.
The original design concept was based upon the idea of "Carhartier"—combining Carhart with Cartier. The concept takes the Carhart attitude of simple, hard-working ideas and materials and combines that with the sophistication and elegance of Cartier. Kendall Ross eliminated anything they felt was superfluous and purely ornamental to focus on the elements that showed up, looked good, and got the job done with style and sophistication.
The real focus of the Doubleback sophisticated sensory experience starts with the shape of the bottle. Slightly tapered with sloping shoulders, the bottle appears straightforward but solid and substantial. The brand mark is presented without any ornamentation, but the slightly raised metallic screen-printing and the etched area are very tactile.
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