Braue // Brand Design Experts – Voodoo Priest

Braue designed the unique and macabre-inspired packaging for Voodoo Priest, a special mysterious rum that comes with a great backstory.“Originally, Voodoo Priest was intended to serve as a Christmas present for clients and production partners of the German-based brand agency Braue.As it turned out the interest and demand for Voodoo Priest significantly increased from that time on. Thus Voodoo Priest was established as a standalone product distributed by Copper & Brave which was specifically founded for this purpose. It was built around a mysterious brand story about two company founders named Gabriel Copper and Tyler Brave, who travel through time and space in an alternative steampunk world, returning with rare alcoholic artifacts from dangerous time expeditions into their parallel universe of a Victorian-like England.”“The main goal of products made by Copper and Brave are to bring fictional and real elements together in one exciting story with an outstanding spirit at its core, following this philosophy: ‘tastes like Netflix in a glass.’A brief introduction to the world of Voodoo Priest itself is printed on a disrupted piece of newspapers of the fictional ‘The Haitian Tribune’ that is glued on the bottle:*****Haiti – Last Friday an air mail plane crashed due to heavy rain and thunderstorms. Air traffic controllers lost contact with the flight about 100 miles north of Haiti. The surviving pilot was found on a small island known as ‘Shango Cay’ on Tuesday.PILOT SURVIVES, STILL CONFUSEDPolice spokesman Jean Beauvais explained the man is surprisingly in good condition, but appears to be very confused. He is endlessly repeating a weird story of par­ticipating in sexual rituals with obscene women, excessive rum drinking and also mentioned a mysterious voodoo priest during his stay on ‘Shango Cay.’ As of today investigators have found no evidence supporting the pilot’s reportings. ‘Shango Cay’ has been deserted for well over 300 years and hence officials remain sceptical whether the avi­ator’s story could be true, except for the empty rum bottle clen­ched in the pilot’s hand when he was rescued from the island. Even more puzzling to the inves­tigators is the fact that the plane is not registered and its certifi­cation expired in 1957. The data retrieved from the plane’s flight data recorder showed its engines and all other systems were wor­king fine until the plane slammed into the ground. Also no eviden­ce could be found for the alleged lightning hit during the thunder­storm. Spokesman Beauvais added: ‘lt’s way too early to draw any con­clusions’ about what might have caused this accident. As for the pilot’s mysterious sto­ry, Beauvais admitted: ‘As of now we are clueless.’”*****“The packaging is a merge of story elements such as the craft spirit itself or the newspapers and typical items used in voodoo rites such as feathers, pearls and of course a chicken foot in the shape of an amulet – everything set in the brand’s main colors black and copper. A chalky life-sized handprint on the newspapers represents the obscure protagonist of the storyline himself: the Voodoo Priest.”“Furthermore, a corked tiny vial filled with ritual-powder is attached. Mysterious sparks appear if a dash of this powder is sprinkled on the ignited Voodoo Priest rum – the perfect beginning for a curse or an enchanting evening … Finally, the bottle is sealed with a cork which is covered by melted black wax.To make the experience even more macabre the special edition of Voodoo Priest comes in a black shroud fixed by black elastic straps. A crushed black label hanging from the bottle’s neck has the brand stamped in white on a black piece of fabric showing the stamp of its unholy sender.Due to its complexity the whole packaging process is handmade – consequently turning every single bottle into a unique one-of-a-kind piece.”