sake bottles

I found a blog looking at sake bottle design which I thought was really helpful. It analyses a little bit about the different designs used. I quite like the idea of getting inspiration from sake bottles and incorporating that style of design into the tiger beer limited edition packaging design.

Hige-Moji or ‘Whisker Characters’ on this sake called ‘Shinkame’ (The Holy Tortoise) – the Chinese character for tortoise really looks like the shape of a tortoise here.

"The bottle of ‘Yukinone’ (The Sound of the Snow) is wrapped in a thin tissue paper like this."

I like the idea of wrapping the bottle in this way after looking at some of the other japanese packaging design, they place a lot of emphasis on folding or wrapping the product. Making it seem hand wrapped, or that more care has been placed into creating the design.

"The label of ‘Kamotsuru’ (Crane of Kamo) on the left features Mount Fuji and cranes as motifs and has its brand written in Latin letters. With all these clichés combined it seems as if the bottle was designed with intent for distribution outside of Japan."

I like the rough edges of the label, making it look a little more hand rendered

"Various bottles of sake being chilled in the fridge - notice the strong emphasis on handwritten labels."

Again this image shows the wrapped up bottle, tied with a string. i would like to see how i could maybe incorporate this into my design. The label hanging of it could hold the origami "fortune teller" game, which could give more information about sake packaging/making.

"Japanese sake is usually named after either the master brewer, the master brewer’s preferences (pictures of turtles and cranes, for example) or the location of the brewery. Handwritten calligraphic letterings on Japanese sake labels are the standard. Perhaps because calligraphy is another element that brings out the atmosphere that is so unique for Japan."

"The photo on the left depict a bottle of sake for ‘Ozeki’, the title of a very high rank given to sumo wrestlers. (Since high ranking sumo wrestlers only get the best possible food and are stuffed with mountains of delicious sashimi every night, they also deserve the very best of the most expensive sakes, of course.)

This is a special-edition bottle for the 270th anniversary of Ozeki’s sake production, reproducing the original old pottery bottle with white glass that looks like porcelain at a glance. Instead of a label, the design is printed directly onto the bottle."

last image showing a sake label with a Daruma, a round Japanese wish doll with neither arms nor legs! Typically for the beginning of the year, you take a Daruma doll which usually has ‘no eyes’, make a wish and fill in his right eye with a pen. Once your wish is fulfilled, fill in the other eye as well.

this is an interesting concept, bringing forward a fun tradition.