SPOTLIGHT: Wine & Spirits

What Could ‘23’ Mean?

When Diageo, a global force in the liquor business, decided to launch an innovative product, the package and branding had to be just as innovative. The brand image that Bloom Design Limited, in London, England, developed redefines a product category as much as the product itself hopes to redefine it by being unequivocally undefined.

There are currently three products in the “23” line of drink mixers, but each of the three has 23 label iterations. Confusing? Sure. And what exactly does “23” mean? (We’ll get to that.) The austere, minimalist labels of 23, the mystery of the name, and the squat, stackable bottles beguile the consumer at first sight. There is no descriptive text, no suggested use, and no way to determine what the product is.

The brief that Diageo put to Bloom was for a brand name that captured a sense of worldliness, exploration, and intrigue. The concept of “23” caught the design team’s attention early on, because of its meaningful-yet-mysterious meaning (we’ll get to that later). Diageo launched 23 to help invigorate the spirits category at the source—in the pubs. Diageo’s brands include Smirnoff, Tanqueray, J&B, and Captain Morgan, among others. All three 23 mixers go well with vodka, but each also has some other equally alluring propensities.

Bloom intentionally created a unique and distinctive structure designed specifically to break category rules. The bottle itself is only about 4" high, solid and sturdy to hold, and holds 150 ml of mixer. The bottles are wrapped with paper labels saturated with the unnamed color “name” of the product. The “23” logo style is sharp and angular to reflect the taste of a grown-up mixer, while the interlocking 2 and 3 support the idea of spirit and mixer coming together.

The overall design treatment is unique in that no variant or product descriptor appears on the front. Without a category or description, consumers will have to ask for the product when ordering a drink: “I’ll take a Smirnoff-23-Blue!” This creates an ownable brand language that makes the spirit and mixer equal “heroes.”

“The whole idea was to do something very different in a staid category,” explains Dan Cornell, creative director at Bloom. Diageo’s innovation comes in three different flavor varieties: Red, Green, and Blue. The 23 Red mixer has an affinity with Japan, the Blue with Iceland, and the Green with Mexico. Each flavor has 23 different photo images inspired by Japan, Iceland, and Mexico, printed on different-sized print runs for collectibility intrigue.

The label images are courtesy of the photography style of David Gill, a London-based still-life photographer who was selected for his uncompromisingly simplistic style. David’s skill lies in taking everyday items and transforming them into works of art, with an emphasis on detail, texture and finish.

Have you guessed it yet? Here’s the answer: “23” is the number of degrees that the Earth is tilted off its orbital plane around the Sun, or the solar system’s ecliptic plane. If the Earth was not tilted 23º, the sun would rise and set at the same time every day, and seasons might be nearly undiscernible. Yet, to Diageo and Bloom, this was a natural start point for a mixer inspired by worldwide ingredients and exploration.