Global design and innovation company Seymourpowell (seymourpowell.com) announces details of the design of a new whisky brand and bottle ‘The Class’ aimed at an emerging younger market, for leading Korean alcohol company HiteJinro.

Filling a gap in the Korean Whisky bottle market, Seymourpowell’s design moves away from the general trend for ostentatious glamour toward simplicity and elegance. While it is a unique design, it maintains status and masculinity - themes that have become seemingly inherent to the whisky market.

Being a new brand, the main design challenge was to create meaningful substance and structure without building off an existing product. This was achieved through the holistic design of the bottle, graphics and branding.  Deliberately created to be mixed, the product’s design alludes to this through confluence – two flowing lines converging to represent two rivers coming together on the surface of the bottle.

Another key design feature was the deliberate omission of a label. Instead, gold lettering is applied directly to the bottle through foil blocking. The branding is unusually vertical and minimalist, contributing to the simplicity and modernity of the design, and allowing for maximum product visibility.

Seymourpowell director of 3D Brand, Neil Hirst, says of the design, “The intention was to design a pack that was both masculine and elegant. Something that would be distinct from the local competition while using a contemporary but familiar frame of reference.

“The unique design reflects the aspirations of the target consumer, while retaining the familiar heritage and quality cues of the Premium Scotch Whisky.”

 HiteJinro’s Whisky and Wine managing director JongSun Park says, “The launch of the new brand reflects the desire for a younger emotional product in the Whisky market. The consumer age for whisky has dropped in the past few years. We believe that ‘The Class’ will be a new trend in the Korean whisky market. We also hope that it will encourage a new casual whisky drinking culture replacing the old image of local whisky hostess bars.”