DESIGN NAME: Dame de Pique
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Bottle packaging
INSPIRATION: The name of the brand refers to an old local legend: the Dame de Pique, literally Queen of Spades in French; the ghost of a middle age woman who haunted the blackthorn woods where the family harvest. It strongly influences the general design and the graphic chart (black, red and white). The other inspiration came from the world of poker. These two aspects contribute to giving the brand a very peculiar atmosphere which acts as a guideline for all graphic illustrations and branded product.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Dame de Pique is a unique brand run by R. VINCENT, both architect and liquorist. Like his creator, the brand associates design and tradition to restore an old French speciality: the "veine d'épine noire". This aperitif appeals to women. The idea behind the packaging was to propose a more suitable size of consumption for this target. It should be flexible, light and creates the desire to buy and to offer. The point is not to drink a lot to be glamorous, it is to drink responsibly with moderation.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: This 3 bottles pack works as both as a presentation and gift pack. It borrows some familiar beer pack features but the outline and the general design were developed to highlight the bottles and fit the standards of premium market. They work together as a whole entity. From a more practical point of view, the cardboard was cut in a single piece and can be manually and easily assemble without any glue while the tear opening tab allows a quick access to bottles.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The design process started in April 2015 and ended in December the same year. It includes preliminary design patterns and models realized by the designer itself then sample production, and finally mass production. The aluminium bottles were manufactured in China by EBI, a Chinese professional manufacturer. Crown caps came from Finland and were manufactured by Finn-Korkki while the cardboard pack was made in France by BCO Packaging communication. The packs were finally assembled in France and ready to sell in the beginning of January 2016.
FITS BEST INTO CATEGORY: Food, Beverage and Culinary Arts Design
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: Printed aluminium bottles and crown cork with food grade inner coating and offset printed carboard packaging .
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: Bottle size: 53x167mm
Cardboard Tripack: 582mm x 212mm (unfold)
TAGS: Dame de Pique, Queen of Spades, apéritif, beverage, tradition, speciality, art and craft, épine noire, sloewine, made in France, Charentes
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: It all started with preliminary researches about products already existing on the market, including the analysis of the competition between them, but also available raw materials, their costs and production process. Then few design options were developed from these studies. Only one remained after few weeks and feedbacks from manufacturers. It was the best compromise solution between innovation and technical limitation. The final design should easily suit production tools but also manufacturers standards while being economically viable, probably the most important part.
CHALLENGE: The hardest part of the design activity was to conciliate the design process of the bottle with the production and constraints of the wine itself since every part of the job were almost done by a single person. This choice was made for economic reasons but also to keep the same guiding vision all along the production and save lots of time. It limits the exchanges and in the same time provided a greater reactivity to problems encountered. Those were mainly due to technical issues, deadlines and production costs to handle.
ADDED DATE: 2017-02-17 22:23:47
TEAM MEMBERS (1) :
IMAGE CREDITS: Romuald Vincent, 2016.
PATENTS/COPYRIGHTS: ©Dame de Pique
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