New Branding & Packaging for Casamalka by Nihilo — BP&O

Branding company Nihilo is more proficient than most at shattering stereotypes – each within the work they make, and by way of who the company is, and what it’s all about. Based by designer Emunah Winer and author Margaret Kerr-Jarrett in Israel in 2021 and now primarily based in Columbus, Ohio, the company takes its title from the Latin time period ‘creatio ex nihilo’ – which means to create one thing from nothing.

Neither Winer nor Kerr-Jarrett went to design college or climbed up the ranks at a big-name company earlier than founding Nihilo; and it’s maybe their uncommon route into design that’s made their work so authentic and interesting. The primary challenge they labored on collectively was interactive design and poetry platform Two Jewish Girls, which goals to teach individuals about Orthodox Jewish ladies like Winer and Kerr-Jarrett, and difficult preconceptions about them.

This concept of stepping into with contemporary eyes – subverting expectations and approaching acquainted classes anew – permeates all through Nihilo’s portfolio. Whereas the company’s shopper listing contains the likes of Victoria’s Secret, Cube, Design Studio, Orthodox Union, and Tub & Physique Works, in the present day the company largely works with first-to-market and founder-led corporations. One such firm is tequila model Casa Malka, which formally launches in 2024, for which Nihilo created this putting, seductive visible id and model world which completely shatters the mould in the case of what we usually see within the class.

When Casa Malka approached Nihilo, it had little greater than its title, which interprets as ‘Home of the Queen’ (Casa is Spanish for home, and Malka means ‘queen’ in Hebrew). The company labored throughout the technique, visible and verbal model id, packaging design, and a collection of 3D rendered pictures created in collaboration with CG artist Haruko Hayakawa.

Unusually, it additionally labored on the structural packaging aspect of issues, too, taking duty for the bottle design and fabrication – a standout piece of design that feels just like the fulcrum for every different model aspect and touchpoint. The bottle itself is really lovely – tapering from the bottom upwards in a easy, elegant line; with a raised ribbed texture and topped off with a smooth cork and deliciously gloopy gold wax seal. It’s totally, totally elegant. Nihilo has mentioned that the designs have been intentionally saved minimal by way of what number of supplies and hues have been used within the bottle itself; trying to underscore the concept of readability and distinction.

Nihilo says that ‘just like the product itself’, many components of the model id are ‘comprised of a mixture of smooth and onerous, female and masculine’. To me, nonetheless, the entire thing feels fully gender impartial – neither class sprang to thoughts in any respect on first seeing the photographs.

The simplicity retains issues neatly non-gendered, for my part: even the ‘queen’ herself, depicted in easy, textural black brushstrokes towards a white background, strikes a pose that makes her physique really feel nearly abstracted; and the monochrome palette eschews any of the cliched tropes of ‘femininity’. The queen character’s illustration was created in-house by Nihilo, and is primarily used on the gold wax seal on the bottle cap and on branded print collateral.

The softer components, like that illustration, by no means turn out to be too mild since they’re contrasted with the assured, assertive and daring foremost model font, Azeret Mono, by Prague-based foundry Displaay. This Brutalist fashion font is used throughout each the  wordmark and title copy; whereas Gimlet Show Compressed is used for physique and supporting copy. Gimlet is described by its designer David Johnathan Ross as a ‘pleasant quirkhorse’, which appears very apt certainly. The typographer continues, ‘I’ve gone out of my solution to be sure that Gimlet’s allure doesn’t detract from its usefulness as an all-purpose serif’. It’s an announcement that feels neatly reflective of Nihilo’s goals with the Casa Malka branding extra holistically: ‘Visually, the model succeeds by means of restraint – paired again however exuberant on the similar time.’

Whereas the bottles themselves do an enormous quantity of heavy lifting in the case of conveying Casa Malka’s model story, issues actually come to life within the supporting imagery created with Hayakawa. The place the bottle design is fashionable, but purposeful – as underscored by the typewriterish roots of Gimlet – the visible landscapes of Casa Malka’s artwork route is altogether extra fanciful and unique. It’s all wealthy, lush greenery; moody chiaroscuro; glimmering gold chains; and a fragile, natural form of opulence.

Nihilo describes these pictures as ‘dream-like worlds,’ and says that the method of making them performed a major position in ‘figuring out the model DNA’. Choices across the lighting, kinds of crops, textures and compositions went on to point how the Casa Malka model would behave throughout completely different purposes. And since Nihilo created this model whereas the tequila was nonetheless in pre-production, these pictures served as the first car for advertising and marketing efforts as properly.

As such, the supporting model belongings now straight mirror the look, really feel, and general emotional tone mirrored within the bodily bottle and within the beverage itself. The tone of voice in model copy is as lush because the greenery of the forests, trying to evoke ‘an especially sensual and alluring ambiance that feels without delay intimate and accessible’.

Whereas Nihilo has mentioned that these pictures are the first manner of telling Casa Malka’s model story, we’d argue that this sells the packaging design itself, and different branded components just like the very good web site design, quick. The location’s daring use of longform copy and responsive components, alongside playful twists just like the spinning gold Casa Malka seal on the backside of the web page, are very good.

Total, the branding looks like a masterclass in craft and restraint, and demonstrates simply how highly effective design can  be when an company is ready to take a completely holistic overview of a challenge – from structural packaging and fabrication to illustration and artwork route.