Nero Vodka – named after the Roman emperor – is a super-premium spirit made from British potatoes, crafted to be the world’s first true "sipping vodka." With its smooth, velvety texture and minimal afterburn, the vodka was designed to compete with established luxury brands like Grey Goose and Belvedere. The client sought a bottle design that would reflect the vodka's premium quality and unique six-time distillation process, while conveying a sense of luxury, refinement, and sophistication. The goal was to create an eye-catching, distinctive design that would stand out in the competitive high-end vodka market, showcasing both the artisanal nature of the product and its Roman-inspired branding.
The primary challenge was to design a bottle and logo for the brand that reflected Nero Vodka’s high-end, super-premium positioning while maintaining a strong visual identity that captured its distinct characteristics. With a focus on smoothness, quality, and British-sourced ingredients, it needed to communicate these attributes in a visually striking way. Additionally, the design had to feel luxurious and timeless, aligning with the brand's positioning as a premium vodka that could be enjoyed neat or on the rocks. The existing product had no visual identity, and the packaging needed to do the heavy lifting in terms of telling the brand's story, differentiating it from other premium spirits, and creating an aspirational image for consumers.
To address these challenges, we opted to create detailed vector-based artwork that mimicked the depth and richness of a photographic style. This approach allowed us to work within the limitations of the bottle’s printing technology, ensuring that the fine details of the design could be accurately reproduced. After several design iterations, we settled on a Roman-inspired theme, incorporating a bold, stylised Roman helmet on the front of the bottle, surrounded by rocks to create texture and depth. On the back of the bottle, we positioned a sword, carefully aligning it so that, when viewed from the front, it appeared to enter the helmet. This created a striking visual effect, especially when viewed from both the front and the side.We collaborated closely with the printing team to ensure the vector artwork was optimised for production. By working within the technical constraints, we were able to simplify certain details while maintaining the visual impact of the design. The result was a highly detailed, photorealistic effect that was achievable within the limitations of the bottle’s decoration process.To further reinforce the luxury positioning of Nero Vodka, we selected deep black and silver foil accents for the bottle neck and seal. The etched detailing, combined with the sleek glass and premium materials, gave the packaging an elevated, tactile quality that aligned perfectly with the product’s high-end image.
