Case Study
Rising Sun Sparkling Sake
Tools Used: Photoshop & Illustrator
The Rising Sun Brewing Company is a company based out of Hokkaido, Japan. Rising Sun produces alcoholic beverages and beverage sets that focus on the flavors of Japan. They want to share the beauty of Japan to a worldwide audience. The target audience for Rising Sun Sparkling Sake is social, white-collared men and women who want a premium product that will promote discussion for gatherings.
The client needs packaging and label designs that showcase the beauty of Japan. These designs need to stand out to their target audience in stores and the images need to represent Japan in a recognizable way.
Thumbnail Sketches
To start my design process, I did research on the Rising Sun flag and it’s use in current times. I found that the Rising Sun flag is still used as a celebratory flag. It is often used to signify large catches of fish and childbirth. Since the target audience is social drinkers, the flag made sense to add to the design. I also played around with sakura blossoms and Torii gates in the design process since they are very relevant to Japan.
Bottle Label Rough Drafts
During the design process, the product was changed from pale lager to sparkling sake to better fit the brand. The horizontal label designs made more sense for the bottle shape.
Logo Design
The Rising Sun logo would have two different iterations. The first logo would include the type of alcohol and would be found on the bottle and packaging. The second logo would be found specifically on the serving set (o-choko and tokkuri).
Final Bottle Label
For the final label changes, I changed the background to an iconic location in Japan: Mt. Fuji. I liked the orange color from the rough draft but opted to use an image that better represented Japan while keeping similar colors. This background would work well with the color scheme of the foreground.
Packaging Design
After creating the logo and label design, I needed to create the packaging. I would need to create a box for the bottle and a box for the serving set. These designs would also use images that represented Japan and the logo.
Mockups
Once I had my designs, I placed them onto mockups so that I could showcase how they would look on the intended product.
