For anyone of a certain age, the title “Mysterious Cities of Gold” conjures up images of hidden communities in unexplored territories, with a wealth of gold that would have been truly staggering, and the stuff of legend and folklore. In our creative concept, we focus on Mansa Musa, a historic figure and ruler from the 14th century, from whom we derive our product brand name, “Mansas.”

Our illustrated character, depicted in the form of a gold coin emblem, is based on Musa, who is believed to have been one of the richest men that ever lived. While he derived his incredible wealth from taxes and trade throughout the vast Mali Empire (a region of West Africa) and beyond to Mecca, he was also known for his generosity and kindness to others, as well as his desire to spread success, trade, and new ideas.

Mansas Whiskey – Black Gold is a premium South African whiskey, and we were tasked with bringing this product, bottle, and label to life with influences from the incredible story of Mansa Musa and his “Journey of Opulence.” With visual influences taken from African, tribal, and early civilizations, we began with a bespoke bottle embellished with a sweeping spiral of waves running around the bottle, like the rolling, shifting sands of the Sahara Desert. This became the blank canvas for a refined label design.

This label design also incorporates handcrafted typography enriched with gold foils on textured cotton paper, as well as a bespoke bottle lid with a tribal geometric pattern engraved into its wooden top and a matching tamper seal label. The very top of the bottle cap also features an etched wordmark, designed to resemble a gold coin or a token from early civilization. For us as a bespoke bottle and label design studio, it is sometimes the simplest ideas, well executed, that give us the most satisfaction. For our clients, the power of a beautiful label on a textured bespoke glass bottle has the ability to surprise as well as impress.