Brand Experience and Packaging Design agency Vault49 is excited to reveal its latest brand creation project for Casatera, a new product range that sits at the intersection of two key trends in the drinks industry – RTD (ready-to-drink) and premium Tequila. Working in close collaboration with the start-up’s founders, entrepreneurs Kyle King and George Cultraro II, Vault49 created the brand from the ground up, including developing a wordmark, visual identity, brand guidelines and packaging designs.

“The RTD category has quickly established itself as the dominant growth driver within the alcoholic beverage space.” said Jonathan Kenyon, Co-Founder of Vault49, “With established spirits brands constantly innovating to create new RTD formats, plus an abundance of challenger brands, the team behind Casatera had found a sweet spot in the market. Our strategic creative challenge was to create a brand world around this unique product, re-imagining the premium Tequila experience for a broad audience. In such a busy category with no real design rules to play by or break, ensuring shelf standout was crucial.”

Deriving from casa, meaning ‘house’ or ‘home’, and tierra, Spanish for ‘ground’ or ‘land’, building authenticity and meaning into the Casatera name became Vault49’s creative springboard.

“We started to think of the brand as the ‘House of Tequila’; a warm and inviting social space connected to the land, a place where everyone is invited to share the experience.” explained Gali Lucas, Design Director at Vault49, “Noticing a recurring theme in the use of archways in Mexican architecture, we were inspired by how they welcome people in to explore and connect with others in their homes. Viewing these traditional architectural shapes and forms through a contemporary lens was the key to unlocking our creative vision for the brand.”

Designed as a visual way to welcome people into the world of Casatera, the brand’s ownable archway device became a focal point for the clean and simple pack architecture. This shape is also a prominent feature in the wordmark lockup with arches incorporated in the letterforms of the bespoke Casatera typeface, hand-crafted by Vault49’s in-house team.

Wanting to put as much care and detail into designing the brand experience as the makers do in producing the perfectly balanced, expertly blended drinks themselves, Vault49 decided to create an additional hand-drawn key brand asset for the toolkit.

Jennifer Yelk, Senior Designer at Vault49, explained the idea behind it, “A strong and positive symbol in Mexican culture, hummingbirds are also part of the Tequila-making process. To represent their role in pollination and giving life to agave plants, turn the hummingbird illustration upside down and it transforms into a blue agave plant; the base ingredient for Tequila, and the heart of Casatera.”

Other design details across the brand world include:
– A distinctive ‘agave blue’ primary brand colour. Confidently applied across the packaging, this colour choice is impactful on the shelf, differentiating Casatera from other Tequila-based products.
– A warm, complementary copper colour was chosen for the wordmark and other on-pack details. Its premium metallic finish adds an extra touch of specialness and tactility, inviting people to pick up a can.
– Black and white tile patterns inspired by architecture and tiling in Mexican homes. When used across key visuals and communications, these provide a striking juxtaposition to the bold blue packaging.
– An ownable photography style that heroes the product and uses real pieces of fruit to communicate flavour profiles. The addition of plant shadows adds further depth and texture and reconnects the brand back to the tierra.

Working to a clear design strategy, Vault49 has launched Casatera with a holistic brand experience and packaging that communicates its unique offering, setting it apart from the crowd.

“As experts in brand experience and packaging design for the drinks industry, and with their reputation for crafting excellence, Vault49 were the natural partners for us to collaborate with and build the Casatera brand. In the same way that we have approached developing our products, the Vault49 team has considered every single element of our brand with meaning and unique creative flair, and we can’t wait to welcome people into the world of Casatera.” – George Cultraro II and Kyle King, Co-Founders of Casatera.