What Is Backbone Branding, And Why They Don’t S*ck  

A wisely chosen branding agency is what makes our products stand out. Fortunately, or unfortunately, consumerism is king, and it takes O.R.I.G.I.N.A.L.I.T.Y and wit to make a packaging worth remembering. Ok, yes, there are products that discard this rule, but typically those are niche products that have existed for decades, don’t need introduction, and will be around long after I decay. Morbid, but true, folks. 

So, let’s imagine branding agencies like the mean-girls-style high school archetypes. Some would be the loud jocks, some would be the geeks. And then there’s the Janis Ian of the bunch, but we call her Backbone Branding. The sharp, weird one, sketching something that will later win an international award and make everyone else look slightly underdressed. 

Ok, the comparison stops there. I feel like I should drop a disclaimer at this point. I’m affiliated with none of them. Not part of the Mean Girls franchise, and not part of Backbone Branding. I just make small videos with Clideo and tend to generally shut up about things, or at least keep my opinions to myself. Just brought you guys some flavoured food from a small country you probably haven’t heard of. 

Why Them, and also, WHERE? 

Based in Yerevan, Armenia, Backbone Branding has built a reputation that feels disproportionate to the size of the country. Armenia has a population smaller than a medium-sized wedding, and far less than many global cities. Yet this studio consistently competes with agencies from London, New York, Milan. And wins. Frequently.

They were founded in 2012, when their founder, Stepan Azaryan, was a fair-haired young man full of big dreams… Ok, just kidding, almost no one in Armenia is ‘fair-haired’, people…Can you say ‘dark and toned’? 

But anyways, in agency years, Backbone is young enough to still have energy and old enough to know what they’re doing. In the beginning, they were dabbling in different aspects of design, but ultimately, what made them huge is the one thing that many agencies treat as a side dish: packaging. The thing you physically hold. The thing that sits on a shelf and has three seconds to seduce you.

Yeah, we all heard the sappy phrase, something like ‘design should tell a cardboard story…’ blah blah blah. Sure. But all the tears and the oversugared tone aside, packaging ACTUALLY has only a few seconds to grab our attention. 

Take their wine and spirits projects. Sure, they could slap a grape illustration and call it heritage. Believe you me, Armenia is all about heritage and the past. They dig into mythology, symbolism, geometry, texture. 

These guys didn’t want to leave a taste of ‘familiar’ in the eyes and hands of consumers. That’s why they stand out. A bottle might carry a visual metaphor about duality, memory, or regional identity. A honey jar might look like it belongs in a modern art museum. A vodka bottle may have structural elements that make you pause and actually rotate it in your hand, which, by the way, is a small retail victory. They also make structural changes to bottles to prevent them from sliding and damaging in the process of transportation. Trust me, with Armenian roads in some places, everyone should be thinking about that…

Enter, Accolades!

Would our capitalist society be ok with accepting something that doesn’t have a row of prizes up  on its mantel? Didn’t think so! This is not one of those cases, actually. 

Backbone Branding has collected international recognition from different competitions. Pentawards and the A’ Design Award & Competition, to name a few. In the packaging world, Pentawards are not participation-trophy-style thank-you-for-coming notes. These guys are a serious benchmark. Winning there means your work holds up against global heavyweights. These guys have also been featured repeatedly on major design platforms that curate only the strongest packaging projects worldwide.

Now, awards are nice. But awards alone don’t make a studio interesting. Plenty of agencies collect trophies. What makes Backbone genuinely compelling is their lack or public narcissism. Now look, I don’t know what they do in the privacy of their homes. Maybe they pose with the Pentawards in the shower. I have no idea. But in the public sphere of the country, they’re very low-key. 

Also, a lot of contemporary packaging trends, especially local ones, tend to lean toward maximalism: gradients, typography gymnastics, hyper-color explosions, and all that jazz. Backbone often goes the other way. They usually have a strong central concept. Clean execution. Minimal elements, but each one is intentional. 

Standing Out Isn’t Everything. But It’s Still A Lot 

Another thing that stands out is material intelligence. Their designs often incorporate embossing, foil stamping, die cuts, textured papers, and unusual bottle forms. 

And here’s the strategic kicker. Armenia is not a massive consumer market, and there is one, khm, excuse me… ONE city that’s actually big enough to provide a substantial consumer pool and have the means to ‘shop around’ as we say. People live their lives, shop what they know, go onto Apple App Store, and don’t give two sh*ts about packaging. Mostly, not always. 

If you build a studio that depends solely on local demand, you cap your ceiling preeetty quickly. I think Backbone tried to position themselves internationally from the start. At least that’s what their website, communication, and portfolio presentation are saying. They don’t market themselves as local designers per se. 

I would say, when international clients look at their work, they’re not seeing the whole cliche geography. That would be a plus in my book. 

Let’s talk about alcohol packaging specifically, because it’s the sphere that often suffers from cliche packaging in the country (suffer or win is actually relative here, but I don’t enjoy it much, so called it suffering. Sorry). Also, Armenia is a country where people LOVE their wine and vodka, so branding is actually brutally competitive. Shelves are crowded, buddy. Visit and see for yourself. Every label claims heritage, purity, craft. 

Backbone cuts the routine a little and gives the eyes something to rest on. I think they do it without giving pretentious. That’s a delicate balance, believe me. 

Also, Armenia is not typically the first country that comes to mind in global design conversations. It rarely comes up at all. Yet here is this studio consistently appearing in international rankings and award lists. It challenges the hierarchy that creative industries often assume.