White Sheep Co.

Agency: Curious Design
Designer: Monique Robins
Illustration: Anton Petrov
Project Type: Produced
Client: White Sheep Co.
Location: Auckland
Packaging Contents: Sheep Milk Spirit
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Glass Bottle, Paper Label
Printing Process: Offset

What the flock!

While being a producer of many world class beers and wine, New Zealand does not have an alcoholic spirit that tourists instinctively associate with. This started our client thinking about what is unique to NZ and what type of drink could be created to represent New Zealand on the global stage. The answer? Well there are in fact 30 million of them-sheep.

On an excursion to Inner Mongolia while living overseas, our client discovered that distilled milk had been drunk there for centuries. This led to the idea for a quirky New Zealand take on a centuries old, exotic product. However in order to attract the big spending ‘luxury shopper’ tourist, it was essential for The White Sheep Co to have a top shelf spirit prestige. This would allow the purchaser to impress their family and friends with an exclusive, unique memento from their visit to Aotearoa.

After many stages of crafting, the product was finally perfected and Curious was commissioned to create the name, branding, packaging and communications to satisfy all of our client’s wish list.

Given that the product proposition is built around distilled sheep milk, it was patently clear that the iconography should visually represent its provenance. However we aimed to do that in a way that reflected both the whimsical nature of the brand and the premium quality of the spirit. This was achieved by fabricating an overall knitted wool pattern for the label with a stitched effect for the sheep and grass tufts. This was further enhanced at the printing stage by ‘high building’ those elements and adding texture to the knit, creating a very tactile experience for the consumer at point of purchase.

An understated colour palette and restrained typography was then introduced to ensure that premium cues were maintained. Finally a bespoke neck tag was created for initial promotional purposes that perfectly complemented the stylish bottle.

All in all a perfect way for the rest of the world to share the spirit of New Zealand.