Spotlight: Wine & Spirits

IBC/Shell Creates a Well-Balanced Carton and Gift Package for the Absolut Holiday Campaign

The "micro" pin stripe motif and elegant accents of these Absolut Level packages translate well across the cartons and holiday gift packages.

The Absolut Level name communicates the balance of smoothness and character from its unique combination of two distillation methods. The frosted, tall, and slender bottle inspired the IBC/Shell Packaging design team to make a modern, minimal, and subtly elegant packaging statement.

A clean logo, the matte film lamination, and rich silver hot stamping strike a very pleasing harmony with the subtle red highlights on the single box package as well as on the holiday gift package. PVC windows front and rear, with clear vacuum formed inserts, display the bottle and frosted martini glasses as showpieces in the 750ml two-glass and the 1.75 liter four-glass value added packages.

The initial step in the design process was the immersion of the IBC/Shell team into the brand's core. Extensive meetings with key client personnel followed, and the fabric of the new Level brand was conveyed to the IBC/Shell team. Level's unique personality, its clear differentiation from the competition, and the strategy behind the brand's development, yielded the DNA for IBC/Shell's packaging equation.

"Once our team felt the essence of Level in our bones, and the brand's target audience in our brains, we could begin to ideate the package," says Norman Kay, president of IBC/Shell Packaging. Level's uniqueness and the sophistication of its dual distillation process is embraced by the beauty of the Level bottle design by Pearlfisher, and further amplified by the perfect balance of construction, color tones, and material chosen by the IBC/Shell design team.

"Our designers are known for their ability to ideate and present several possibilities in the spirit of creative collaboration," Kay says. "Our decision to use the inspiration of a crisp, tailored, grey pinstriped suit ultimately became the perfect personality for the Level package." The clean Level logo and the subtle red highlights enhanced this classic piece, and made the package a standout in the realm of super-premiums.

Phase two of the design mission was to coordinate the same statement with the value-added gift set. The Martini glasses by IBC/Shell, as classic as the pinstriped body of the package, are frosted and sans logo, in keeping with the clean, minimalist Level statement. "The idea was to balance the glasses as if perfectly suspended in air alongside the frosted Level bottle," says Kay. "The look, elegant and understated, is the essence of Level."

The primary materials chosen by IBC/Shell's production unit for the package were a medium density .024 premium SBS substrate combined with a 20 gauge "water clear" PVC for the unusual front and rear double window configuration. The subtle effect of the package is created with three separate grey tones, the micro pin striping, and the foil stamped silver and red highlights. The luxe, tactile property is created by an overall lamination of a matte polyester film. This graphic theme was carried throughout the line, appearing on the 750ml two glass martini set, the 1.75 liter four glass martini set, the single 750 ml gift carton, and the one liter gift carton.

Maintaining the rich, subdued look, the package interior is printed with a matching grey overlay. IBC/Shell molded the twin vacuum forms, which secure the bottle and martini glasses, in 40 gauge vinyl. Providing further structural support to the package is a fiberboard collar which is also color-matched to the interior. The final stage of the ideation, design, production, and distribution cycle is the fulfillment of product, glassware, package, and shipping materials, which were all handled in a "cosmetic-quality" environment.