With a brief codenamed “Cocktails To Mars”; themes of time travel; wormholes, mythical space “alconauts”, and apples first cultivated in 1830… Elsewhen Apple Jack brandy was always destined to have an eclectic brand identity. Our design thinking had to incorporate these fresh and playful ideas, yet retain a premium feel in keeping with the limited edition product.

The label design embraced fantastical concepts of outer space, based on a celestial chart and teleportation with deco style lettering to project a blend of craft and intellect. The label finish is a testament to the challenges of creating beautifully embellished labels in short digital runs. We trialled multiple substrates and finishes before deciding on a metalized stock for its engineering qualities and ability to achieve a distinctive emboss which doesn’t flatten out when applied to the bottle and it enabled us to deliver a cost-effective foil look with unique bottle numbers and vintages.

A custom shipping box was a natural extension to the “Cocktails To Mars” theme. The brief was an intergalactic transport device for our mythical “alconauts” to carry precious cargo across time and space. The dual function of the bespoke box elevates the brand experience while removing the need for extra packaging for shipping. To fully embrace the intergalactic theme, we created imaginary passport and visa inspired travel stamps to cement Elsewhen as a brand deserving of its own parallel universe.

The Client
Elsewhen emerged from an eccentric parallel universe, bringing premium barrel-aged apple brandy to New Zealand. Crafted in Nelson by a duo of highly passionate and inspired drink creators. Their vision was to launch the classic American Apple Jack brandy into another dimension, rich in imagined possibilities, with a limited run of 200 bottles produced per vintage.