New York-based brand and innovation firm Beardwood&Co. (www.beardwood.com) has partnered with Honest Tea®, the nation’s top-selling organic bottled tea company, to co-design the aluminum can graphics and outer packaging for Honest Fizz. HONEST® Fizz is a new, naturally sweetened zero calorie soda line sold in slim 12-ounce cans and 6-packs in four flavors: Lemon Limey, Orange Pop, Professor Fizz, and organic Root Beer.

“Our design strategy is consistent with the HONEST brand: refreshingly straightforward and simple, along with a serving of fun,” says Julia Beardwood, founder, Beardwood&Co.  “Since this is Honest Tea’s first foray into soda, we played up the bubbles on the can and color-coded them to communicate effervescence and flavor.”

The new design incorporates the familiar white background and all-caps HONEST logo along with the lower case name ‘fizz.’  The words ‘Zero Calorie’ are prominently featured across the top of the can and under the flavor descriptor.  Whimsical product visuals and names deliver the playful attitude for which the brand is known: Root Beer utilizes a straw stuck into a barrel; Lemon Limey uses an anchor for a connection to sailors warding off scurvy; Orange Pop has silver bursting bubbles; and Professor Fizz highlights a cherry with a swizzle straw for a stem to denote the spiced cherry flavor.

Vibrant color photography aligns with the brand’s style as well. “Each photo offers a sense of animation and gives the impression of the beverage bursting with fizzy flavor,” says Sarah Williams, partner/creative director, Beardwood&Co. 

Honest Tea’s VP of marketing, Peter Kaye, agrees. “The collaboration between our in-house creative team and Beardwood resulted in a clear and clever design that fits with the rest of our portfolio of brands and really stands out on retail shelves.”

 The four-flavor Honest Fizz line was first made available exclusively at select Whole Foods Market stores, and will launch nationwide in natural food and specialty retailers in March.