Sipping Liquor
Sipping Liquor is a craft spirits club and subscription service. Their booze experts scour the planet to bring their members the best whiskies, rums and brandies (and occasionally something a little more exotic like a mezcal or grappa).
Overview
People are thirsty for new experiences. If you can have those experiences in the comfort of your own home then even better. Please welcome to the stage Sipping Liquor. An affordable booze delivery service that focuses on niche spirits from craft distilleries that aren't found on the shelves of mainstream shops. Sipping Liquor also exclusively work with small producers, which helps to sustain the local economies and communities of these distilleries. The public are on board with this too, with 55% of UK consumers preferring to buy local brands. Sipping Liquor are here to prove that you can have brilliant drinks, made by brilliant people, at a brilliant price.
Services
Brand Strategy, Visual + Verbal Identity Design, Copywriting + Messaging, Print + Digital Design, Illustration.
The Challenge
- Fresh faced start-up in a market where you have to subscribe to everything.
- Desire to push the notion of belonging to a community, without feeling like you might get turned away at the door.
- Important to create an identity that can easily connect with independent craft distilleries and smaller producers.
- Wanted to convey the unique taste and flavours of their monthly offerings, without sending subscribers soggy print samples.
Barefaced Solution
- The products sold by Sipping Liquor are focused primarily upon craftsmanship. So we built a brand with a strong story that hints at tradition, to cut through an oversubscribed subscription industry.
- Marvin, Sip’s illustrated mascot, led the charge in making the brand accessible to all. Based upon Harry Craddock, author of the Savoy Cocktail Book. Marvin is pictured delivering Sip’s latest offering straight to their customers, literally removing barriers to entry by going direct to the consumer, whilst creating an air of inclusivity among their subscribers.
- We focused on articulating the quality, process, history and taste credentials of the producers working with Sipping Liquor through a visual language compassionate of the heritage and craft of distilling spirits.
- We developed a colour palette that acts as a visual shorthand of the deep, complex flavours of liquor, helping to engage customers taste buds and not just their eyeballs.
“Barefaced did a great job designing the brand identity for Sipping Liquor. Claire and her team of creatives were a joy to work with. I felt I had input at all stages and I’m really happy with the final results.”
– Andrew Rummer, Owner
STRATEGY
We identified an opportunity to create a premium yet accessible brand that offers a new experience and sense of community to its subscribers. Our approach was to create a modern adaptation of traditional spirit branding, inspired by the heritage of drinking spirits in British members clubs. The core brand colour, a rich mustard, was chosen in response to the yellow undertones found in most whiskies and rums, which we looked to compliment with earthy and muted shades. We developed a signifier for the brand in the form of an illustration we named ‘Marvin’, who was largely inspired by Harry Craddock. Craddock was a famed bartender of the early 20th Century and author of arguably the world’s most famous drinks guide the ‘Savoy Cocktail Book’. Marvin was drawn running with a briefcase to depict the notion that he’s delivering the latest Sipping Liquor shipments to their customers (aka the ‘club members’).
The resulting brand identity embodies the history of the creation and distribution of spirits, coupled with a sense of belonging to a group of like-minded people. The colour palette appeals to your taste buds and signifies the deep, complex flavours found in the spirits sourced by Sipping Liquor. It’s by this reinforcement of flavour visually, in order to trigger as many senses as possible, that Sipping Liquor are able to elicit a deep seated emotional response to their brand among their customers. The illustration of Marvin provides a talking point for the brand, adding an element of fun and a dose of wit (which runs throughout Sipping Liquor’s marketing – check them out, they’re hilarious). One day we hope to add Mabel, Marvin’s best friend, to the brand family.