Bottled water is a shelf of blue bottles, all claiming purity, and almost none can point to why. Volvic can: the water filters through volcanic rock in the Auvergne, and that is a fact rather than a mood. I built the packaging system around that origin instead of the category's reflexes, with a label hierarchy that survives half a second in a chiller and a structure flexible enough to hold every format across a global range.
CLIENT ▸ VOLVIC, France
YEAR▸ 2011
AREA ▸ Beverage, Bottled Water
AUDIENCE ▸ Retail Buyer, End Consumer
SCOPE ▸ Packaging labels, packaging architecture, campaign materials
SCALE ▸ Brand distributed across 60+ markets, 1bn+ bottles produced annually
ROLE ▸ Art Director (Freelance, via Purjus Communication)
TEAM ▸ Worked with a project manager at Purjus
PROCESS ▸ Category and shelf audit → origin territory → label system and hierarchy → production files across formats
YEAR▸ 2011
AREA ▸ Beverage, Bottled Water
AUDIENCE ▸ Retail Buyer, End Consumer
SCOPE ▸ Packaging labels, packaging architecture, campaign materials
SCALE ▸ Brand distributed across 60+ markets, 1bn+ bottles produced annually
ROLE ▸ Art Director (Freelance, via Purjus Communication)
TEAM ▸ Worked with a project manager at Purjus
PROCESS ▸ Category and shelf audit → origin territory → label system and hierarchy → production files across formats
The Challenge
A category where every competitor says purity, and none of them can prove it
A real geological story that nobody on the shelf could see
One system that had to work across every format and every market
A category where every competitor says purity, and none of them can prove it
A real geological story that nobody on the shelf could see
One system that had to work across every format and every market
Strategic Approach
Anchored the brand in origin rather than in the category's shared promise
Made volcanic filtration a visual fact instead of a line of copy
Built the label as an architecture, so formats and markets slot in rather than get redrawn
Anchored the brand in origin rather than in the category's shared promise
Made volcanic filtration a visual fact instead of a line of copy
Built the label as an architecture, so formats and markets slot in rather than get redrawn
Creative Solution
Graphic language drawn from volcanic landscape and geological form
A green-led palette that steps out of the category's blue by default
Label hierarchy rebuilt for half a second of attention in a cold cabinet
Graphic language drawn from volcanic landscape and geological form
A green-led palette that steps out of the category's blue by default
Label hierarchy rebuilt for half a second of attention in a cold cabinet
Scope & System
Custom label system across formats
Typographic hierarchy and shelf-readability rules
Campaign materials built on the same visual territory
Custom label system across formats
Typographic hierarchy and shelf-readability rules
Campaign materials built on the same visual territory
Deliverables
+ Creative direction and visual design for the product launch campaign
+ Campaign visuals and key marketing assets
+ Graphic layouts for digital and promotional materials
+ Creative direction and visual design for the product launch campaign
+ Campaign visuals and key marketing assets
+ Graphic layouts for digital and promotional materials
Role & Leadership
Art Director, freelance, working through Purjus Communication. Worked with the agency's project manager.
The argument I had to hold: a water brand does not win by looking cleaner. It wins by being the only one on the shelf with something true to say about where it came from, and by making that visible before anyone reads a word.
Art Director, freelance, working through Purjus Communication. Worked with the agency's project manager.
The argument I had to hold: a water brand does not win by looking cleaner. It wins by being the only one on the shelf with something true to say about where it came from, and by making that visible before anyone reads a word.
On The Work
Bottled water is the purest branding problem because the product is identical and the packaging is the only difference.
When a brand has a real origin, using it is not storytelling. It is the only honest thing to do.
Bottled water is the purest branding problem because the product is identical and the packaging is the only difference.
When a brand has a real origin, using it is not storytelling. It is the only honest thing to do.
Need packaging that works on a crowded shelf and scales across markets?
