Born irreverent to a visionary inventor, SKYY Vodka was an icon of 90’s provocative spirit with its iconic blue bottle and daring San Francisco attitude. Recently, the brand took a radical turn of direction, focusing solely on product attributes and a natural provenance story, thus fragmenting perception and its image. To unlock its ambition of becoming the most forward-thinking vodka, the brand needed to shift its story & visual brand identity.

SKYY’s new global visual identity system raises the bar to unify the brand under a singular and powerful creative idea: Audacious Glamour. Matt Burns, ECD and co-founder at Thirst describes it as “A homage to the brand’s distinct confidence, its vivid swagger and undeniable sophistication”. He carries on to explain its use in steering creative execution: “Guided by this creative idea, we set out to reframe the core assets, taking inspiration from the energy and character of San Francisco to bottle up an audaciously glamorous new look.”

“SKYY’s blue bottle has always been a cut above the competition, hence our hero bottle shots proudly dramatise this sense of scale, alongside the beautiful glass facets. This bold verticality also informed the proportions of a new, dynamic framing device which unifies all creative executions.”

A simplified primary colour palette heroes a fresher, more vibrant SKYY blue, while SKYY Mono becomes the lead typeface, a nod to the brand’s state-of-the-art production process and bold verticality. To introduce flexibility & freshness into the design system, Thirst created a new bottle icon, inspired by the facets of SKYY’s iconic blue bottle; a confidently sleek shorthand for the brand. Supported by a wider suite of mono weight illustrated icons to elevate serve stories with precision & elegance.

Finally, inspired by San Francisco’s bold style & distinctive character, we set out new stylistic guidance across lifestyle imagery and cocktail serves to capture the elevated-everyday shot from a fresh perspective.