Karoo Mermaid

What is this product about?

Bravo Design (Bravo), a graphic design agency based in Cape Town, used the Make a Mark exhibition platform, to showcase the power of AI generative design.  Seeking to create a product authentically rooted in South African culture, Bravo drew inspiration from the folklore of the Karoo Mermaid to unveil its packaging prototype for a blue agave spirit made from plants that grow in South Africa’s semi-arid Karoo region.

What is the concept behind the packaging design?

“The design is inspired by rock paintings depicting creatures with the upper bodies of humans and fishtails on the walls of caves high in the Karoo mountains,” Bravo art director John Nicolson says. “South Africa’s culture is rich in fabled storytelling and myths, but we found the folklore of the Karoo Mermaid especially intriguing.” Our aim was to create a packaging design that genuinely reflected South African culture. Achieving this demanded in-depth research into the folklore of the Karoo Mermaid. Our goal was to create a design that authentically represented century-old storytelling while embracing modernity.

Solution and techniques and unique attributes:

Bravo took the unconventional route of incorporating AI to guide the design’s generative journey. “We merged centuries-old creative storytelling with modern technology,” Nicolson says. “What would a product that embodies both futuristic design and the soul of creativity end up looking like?” The agency harnessed AI tools such as ChatGPT and Midjourney to generate patterns and textures inspired by the scales of mermaids and the natural symmetry of the agave plant.

One of Karoo Mermaid’s notable innovations is the bottle’s base, provided by Estal, which ingeniously mirrors tranquil Karoo pools, the mythical congregation place for mermaids. Adding a layer of ingenuity, the design incorporates a colour-changing foil that mimics the mesmerising play of light on mermaids’ scales. This exclusive foil was specially engineered for the project by globally acclaimed packaging company Leonhard KURZ. Germany-based print company Vollherbst included multiple embossing and foil applications as a single print run.

The Karoo Mermaid design embodies a spirit of unconventional creativity. It strives to inspire by showcasing that innovative design can liberate itself from conventional constraints and venture into uncharted territories. Bravo Design’s approach, incorporating AI tools, stands as a testament to this unconventional creativity.

The results:

BRAVO was the only agency from Africa to participate in the year’s Make a Mark exhibition.

The project took eight months to complete. “As designers, our creativity is often constrained by budgets and accepted realities, but with Make a Mark these constraints did not exist,” said Bravo founder and Creative Director, Brenden Schwartz. “Allowed this free rein, it took the team some time to zone in on a particular focus for this project. Once we did, we found that we could push the other packaging leaders beyond conventions too and we were astounded by the result. It’s certainly unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”

This design demonstrates that traditional storytelling can seamlessly coexist with innovative design approaches. “Many design agencies harbour apprehensions about AI, fearing it will lead to job losses. However, we firmly believe that AI is here to stay. Through our design, we wanted to illustrate the idea that it’s much more beneficial to harness the power of AI, to “tame the beast,” rather than avoid it. We were amazed by the capabilities of AI, and not for a moment did this process make anyone on our team redundant,” said Schwartz.

Curator’s Insight

The color-changing foil that mimics the play of light on mermaids’ scales is a stroke of brilliance.