Zucca Rabarbaro

Creative Agency: BREAK
Designer: Alessandro Di Bello
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: Illva Saronno
Location: Milan, Italy
Packaging Contents: Bitter

SCENARIO
In recent years, the alcoholic beverage sector in the United States has seen bitters notably increase their sales figures. The category has been revived by influent bar tenders and cocktail aficionados who are constantly looking for traditional products with an authentic taste. Rabarbaro Zucca, the historical bitter from Milan, was appreciated, however scarcely available. Disaronno International – the US subsidiary of ILLVA Saronno – has therefore relaunched it with its original recipe from 1845 (30% alcohol content) and revived looks.

COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES
Since the 2000s, the brand was given a modern and essential look for its native Italian market. However, in the US market the heritage of the brand was not so well known, and all its historical authenticity had to be retrieved and conveyed.

CREATIVE SOLUTION
The most effective way to communicate the heritage of the brand was to retrieve many of the elements that characterized the original label from the last century. These have been rationalized and simplified to make them more legible to modern consumers: the emblems were reduced in number, and placed on a straight row. Both the Logo (on top) and the product descriptor (bottom) have been delimited by two horizontal golden lines. In between, the writing Rabarbaro has been further rotated so that the three elements together remind of a Z letter, both the initial of Zucca and the main visual of the product advertising for many years.

The dominance of the main ingredient on the label was re-established since, throughout time, Rabarbaro has became part of the name of the product itself, which is referred to as “Rabarbaro Zucca” by consumers.