ENGINE gin

ENGINE is a new gin that is cool and unforgettable. Born from the mind of Paolo Dalla Mora, I had the opportunity to participate in his creation, in terms of packaging and design.

As the name might suggest, the world of reference of ENGINE is the racing one. The old classic racing of the ’70s: fast cars, roaring engines, adrenaline and the grease of the oil. For this reason, the packaging is so particular: it wants to bring to mind the old motor oil cans.

All the ENGINE gin projects take their inspiration from the old motor oil cans of the ’70, like Castrol or Mobil. I made the design trying to reproduce that feeling and that world. For this reason, I opted for a 3 tone design, simple, minimal and clean, like the design of that year. I also put a couple of pictograms: an engine one (as the name) and a laurel crown (to represent the competitions and the circuits).

The can, vintage and unique, stood out on the shelf but was also a very difficult packaging to produce. First of all the can is not a classic oil can. This material can support grease products but cannot maintain alcoholic beverages inside. For this reason, we worked 3 years to solve the problem, before coming up with a solution, already patented.

The cap is also particular. Made expressly for ENGINE, it was not a one-shot production but has to be adjusted to this patented packaging to solve two missions: close the bottle and be a collectible item when the product is finished.

ENGINE is a pure organic Gin made in Italy that will take you on a ride along the freedom road, right toward your roaring dreams. ENGINE was born in the Langhe in Piedmont, the land of ancient traditions, and has in the recipe the same ingredients of a virtuous natural remedy of Langhe: sage and lemon.

One of the best gimmicks of the project is the name. ENGINE was a perfect name to describe a motor oil, and also already contained the GIN word, explaining both concepts. For the branding, we wanted to play with the GIN word inside ENGINE. Initially, we tried writing EN-GIN-E, but in the end, we decided to make it visible by using “italic”. Here are some development tests of the brand name.