Case Study: Blanca 1973 Tequila Label

Exploration

Inspiration

Wanting a modern style with a traditional flair, Blanca provided tequila label and bourbon label imagery she liked. In the end, a simpler approach than most traditional labels was sought after mainly due to not needing to include as much information on the label. The typeface choice was going to be key with this though, so that became the underlying foundation for the look and feel of the label.

Idea generation

As with most projects—especially branding projects—things started with hand sketching. Normally this includes dozens of rough ideas that are pushed, pulled, and morphed to more ideas, but having a good grasp of what Blanca was after and the style and label contents, ideas flowed quickly and the right direction came a lot faster than normal.

Design

Balance

It’s easy to just add elements to any design—it takes restraint, discipline, and experience to know when you’ve achieved the right balance. In this case, the latter was a bit easier to achieve. As various elements were added, tweaked, removed, and refined, the simplicity of the label started to shine through almost on its own.

“Perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to take away.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Black and white

Color isn’t always necessary, especially when you know the application of what you’re designing. For Blanca’s tequila label, we knew early on that the label design would be applied on a glow in the dark sticker and a lapel pin. Color simply wasn’t needed.