BRAUE – Brand Consulting & Design
May the Extraordinary triumph
There is a mysterious world that the bare eye is not able to see.
A world that the mind cannot comprehend, but sense.
A world whose only inhabitants are »promise« and »opportunity«.
We are the explorers of this world that bears the name of your brand.
We are here for you to solve the enigmas of this new world,
to map the unknown terrain and to redeem the promises,
that this world holds for your new, extraordinary brand.
| Contact: | Kai Braue |
| Address: | Eiswerkestraße 8, 27572 Bremerhaven, Germany |
| Phone: | +49 (0) 471 983 820 |
| Email: | info@braue.info |
| Website: | www.braue.info |
The Tasty Side of a Unique Curse
Braue designed the unique and macabre-inspired packaging for Voodoo Priest, a special mysterious rum that comes with a great backstory. “Originally, Voodoo Priest was intended to serve as a Christmas present for clients and production partners of the German-based brand agency Braue.
As it turned out the interest and demand for Voodoo Priest significantly increased from that time on. Thus Voodoo Priest was established as a standalone product distributed by Copper & Brave which was specifically founded for this purpose.
It was built around a mysterious brand story about two company founders named Gabriel Copper and Tyler Brave, who travel through time and space in an alternative steampunk world, returning with rare alcoholic artifacts from dangerous time expeditions into their parallel universe of a Victorian-like England.”
“The main goal of products made by Copper and Brave are to bring fictional and real elements together in one exciting story with an outstanding spirit at its core, following this philosophy: ‘tastes like Netflix in a glass. ’A brief introduction to the world of Voodoo Priest itself is printed on a disrupted piece of newspapers of the fictional ‘The Haitian Tribune’ that is glued on the bottle:
Brand Story
Haiti – Last Friday an air mail plane crashed due to heavy rain and thunderstorms. Air traffic controllers lost contact with the flight about 100 miles north of Haiti. The surviving pilot was found on a small island known as ‘Shango Cay’ on Tuesday. PILOT SURVIVES, STILL CONFUSED. Police spokesman Jean Beauvais explained the man is surprisingly in good condition, but appears to be very confused.
He is endlessly repeating a weird story of participating in sexual rituals with obscene women, excessive rum drinking and also mentioned a mysterious voodoo priest during his stay on ‘Shango Cay.’
As of today investigators have found no evidence supporting the pilot’s reportings. ‘Shango Cay’ has been deserted for well over 300 years and hence officials remain sceptical whether the aviator’s story could be true, except for the empty rum bottle clenched in the pilot’s hand when he was rescued from the island. Even more puzzling to the investigators is the fact that the plane is not registered and its certification expired in 1957.
The data retrieved from the plane’s flight data recorder showed its engines and all other systems were working fine until the plane slammed into the ground. Also no evidence could be found for the alleged lightning hit during the thunderstorm.
Spokesman Beauvais added: ‘lt’s way too early to draw any conclusions’ about what might have caused this accident. As for the pilot’s mysterious story, Beauvais admitted: ‘As of now we are clueless.’
Packaging
The packaging is a merge of story elements such as the craft spirit itself or the newspapers and typical items used in voodoo rites such as feathers, pearls and of course a chicken foot in the shape of an amulet – everything set in the brand’s main colors black and copper.
Tasty Until Knockout
Rumble Harbor is the second mysterious »story-spirit« that the scientists Gabriel Copper and Tyler Brave found on their dangerous time travels to parallel universes.
Brand story
The story is about an illegal boxing tournament on the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York in the 1930s, at the time of Prohibition. The shipyard workers are working hard and yet have no chance of a brighter future. So they organize a boxing tournament that attracts a lot of shady audiences. The six best fighters of the shipyard, all very bizarre contemporaries, box for a better life to get free from the inhuman drudgery. To numb oneself against the hard punches, they drink a very special rum before each round – each in their own unique way. Of course, the audience is intoxicated with liquor too – a great spectacle for all. There is only one rule: whoever loses a tooth first loses the fight. Then the gong rings …
Packaging
The entire packaging should convey the highest amount of authentic detail possible to whomever drinks Rumble Harbor, making him believe that he himself is part of the audience of an illegal box fight in a parallel universe, cheering for his particular favorite fighter. None of the objects used for the bottle have decorative purposes only but rather serve as little helpers to pack the overall story.
The bottle itself is heavily sand-blasted and chipped in places to let it look like an old authentic artifact. It’s closed with a natural cork on which a round tin badge with the logo of the shipyard is applied. The cork itself is additionally protected by a complex knotted bast string – both aged artificially. This in turn is held together with a lead seal on which the initials »RH« are coined. The bast string is fixed on the bottle’s shoulder by a small paper label showing the batch and bottle number.
Furthermore the brand’s name is screen printed in white on the frontside. It looks as if it was painted by using a thick brush and a stencil – again things that can easily be found on a shipyard.
At it’s side the bottle has a scale showing the current depth of fill. This is, as in boxing, divided into 15 rounds and ends, of course, with the K.O., when the rum was consumed completely. At the back there is an always different part of an old ship construction printed on it.
On the back of the bottle, the shipyard ID cards of the six participating fighters are applied. These are based on original ID cards from this period. The pictures are authentic portraits from that time sticked with rusty staples on the ID cards. Typically, these shipyard ID cards are also clamped in a tin frame on which the words »Brooklyn Naval Yard« are coined. This frame can be opened to take the ID card out for your own collection. Also on the back of the bottle, the time stamp card of each fighter is glued. There you can read the ingredients and the following handwritten note: »There’s only one rule loose a tooth – loose the fight. Take a gulp before each round and watch your teeth, mister!«
The bizarre highlight of Rumble Harbor is undoubtedly a tooth on the bottom of each bottle, which always provides for enthusiasm and astonishment. These are dental ceramic teeth, which are actually used for the production of prostheses.
The Rumble Harbor Special Gift Edition will be wrapped in a large-format site map of the shipyard. The plan is fixed to the bottleneck with an aged solid rope. The rope’s ends are protected against splicing with metal sleeves. The Special Gift Edition also includes a 48-page booklet that further introduces you to the world of Rumble Harbor, the fighters and their favorite drinks.
As well as Voodoo Priest, Rumble Harbor’s packaging is hand-crafted, giving each bottle its unique character.
Asylum In a Bottle
Copper and Brave have returned safely from their longest journey through time. As before, they were able to bring along a new »story-spirit«: the mysterious Raven Hills.
Brand Story
Charles Layton, a young and ambitious pharmacist, is ordered to the remote Raven Hills, a sanatorium for the criminally insane, to examine wheter his research on infused alcoholicae could be a benefit for the inmates.
During the first visit with the strange director of the institution, Dr. Hermine Schlegel, all patients are introduced to him. All except »Patient 23«: Highly aggressive and untreatable, she is permanently kept in the »darkroom« for the protection of all.
Driven by zeal, Layton, in contravention of regulations, seeks out the mysterious woman one night to rejoin her fragmented mind. After administering his relaxing gin tonic, she whispers something that deeply disturbs the pharmacist: »Help me … I am Dr. Hermine Schlegel!«
Packaging
The uncanny jar conveys to the connoisseur that he is holding in his hands an authentic medicine from a madhouse at the turn of the century. As with every »story-spirit« from Copper and Brave, nothing is left to chance at Raven Hills: Every detail of the bottle is a small contribution to go deeper into the captivating story.
The apothecary bottle, made of brown quartz glass, has a typical cylindrical shape with a round shoulder. The surface is given a subtly rough structure by lightly grinding it down – giving the impression that the bottle has been has been used countless times in the preparation of experimental botanical elixirs waiting on the shelf of the sanatorium for a long time to be used.
A solid glass stopper with a rubberized coating ensures that the liquid »medicine« in it remains leak-proof, and a shrink capsule additionally holds the stopper in position. A yellowed seal with the inscription »Raven Hills Apothecary« is applied to this closure. This is initially covered by an artificially aged piece of gauze fabric, on which the seal of the asylum is also visible – this time as a stamp print. Finally, the piece of fabric is attached to the bottle neck with natural-colored rubber bands.
On the bottle itself there are two large, likewise weathered pieces of paper. The edges here have been trimmed irregularly to achieve a natural wear effect.
The front is designed like an official form of the sanatorium. At the top, the actual building of the sanatorium can be seen as a small steel engraving with the date of foundation. Below it, notes of the protagonist Charles Layton are applied in the typical doctor’s handwriting. The writing is framed by a historically documented double line. Fox stains, greasy abrasion and a yellowed color theme complement the picture harmoniously.
Eight different labels were designed – each with slight variations in the placement of the handwriting of the pharmacist Layton, the stamped designation “Gin” and the degree of wear and tear on the paper.
The back is made of the same paper as the front label and is also based on medicine bottles of the early 20th century. Especially the botanicals that are important for every gin are described here.
The crowning glory is a small, heavily rusted key, which is hung around the bottle with an equally eroded ball chain. It is said that this key fits into the lock of a special medicine cabinet where the unpredictable Raven Hills is kept away from unauthorized personnel.
