Beverage companies everywhere know their products need to stay timeless while constantly becoming new again. Without changing what's in the bottle, limited edition packaging provides an appealing answer to that paradox — the same, classic flavor with a bold and exclusive look. From Heineken Cubes to Thermosensitive Jaegermeister, here are our 10 favorite packaging design concepts for limited edition alcohol offerings:
1. THE HEINEKEN CUBE
Over the summer, Heineken debuted the Heineken Cube to a purring Internet reception. Unlike its more famous and cylindrical sibling, the Cube is, bluntly put, a cube-shaped bottle of beer. Created by Petit Romain, a French industrial designer, the Cube recalls a rectangular concept Heineken came out with in 1963. The rectangular bottle was more sustainable, doubling as a glass brick that could supposedly be used in construction. Despite its appearance, Romain's Cube fits comfortably in your hand and maximizes storage space for retailers and consumers alike. There's just one quick caveat: no official release date has been set.
2. DOM PERIGNON BY DAVID LYNCH
After its fluorescent Andy Warhol champagne, Dom Perignon has turned to another surrealist icon to hype its latest limited edition bottle — David Lynch. Last year, the idiosyncratic director of Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive produced "The Power of Creation" campaign for Dom Perignon, a series of "magic theatre" photographs promoting the brand. Now, he returns with self-designed limited edition bottles of Dom Perignon 2003 and the Rosé 2000. Exuding a timeless, Lynchian look, the Perignon 2003 and Rosé 2000 are available for $169 and $299, respectively.
3. PEELABLE SMIRNOFF CAIPIROSKA
Inspired by the Caipirinha, the fruity national cocktail of Brazil, Smirnoff released a line of lime, berry and passion fruit-flavored vodkas and wrapped their Caipiroska bottles in peelable packaging recalling the texture of each flavors' fruit. In an attempt to keep up the ruse, the vodka-maker then sent the bottles to their exclusive mailing list in wooden fruit crates.
4. THERMOSENSITIVE JAEGERMEISTER
At room temperature, this Jaegermeister bottle appears to be all black and without labeling. However, once you place it in a cooler locale, the label begins to emerge...
5. JACK DANIEL'S SINATRA SELECT
The packaging of this limited edition 90-proof whiskey echoes Sinatra's timeless, debonair look. A symbolic orange fedora, inspired by Sinatra's iconic hat and favorite color, sits atop the bottleneck, calling forth an image of a bottle of whiskey dressed in a tuxedo.
6. JOHNNIE WALKER SHANGHAI BOTTLES
The bottles themselves have a wraparound design that tells the story of Johnnie Walker's journey from Scotland to China.
7. ABSOLUT UNIQUE
In a distinctive marketing campaign, Absolut plans to unleash 4 million uniquely designed vodka bottles. The bottles were created by splash guns and color-generating machines running on an algorithm churning out original sequences from 35 colors and 51 patterns. According to the eminent vodka-maker, "94 quintillion uniquely designed bottles could be produced before two identical ones would appear", which equates to over 13 billion bottles per person.
8. THE MILLER BOOMBOX
Miller's Boombox packaging design evokes nostalgia for simpler times when boomboxes were actually just boomboxes. Each six-pack of beer has two sides — one looks like a speaker, the other looks like a tape deck. Line three packs up together and you've got a boombox made out of beer. What more could a hipster possibly want?
9. BACARDI 150 ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION DECANTER
Bearing a classic, old-world look, the 150 Anniversary Celebration Decanter invokes the history of the Bacardi rum company, which is symbolized by "El Coco", the coconut palm tree Facundo Bacardi's son purportedly planted outside his father's first distillery. According to Twelve, the agency that designed it, the glass decanter represents a "split seed opening to reveal a new palm for the future" as shown in the palm frond design on the stopper. On the bottom of the decanter, accompanied by the coordinates of Facundo Bacardi's birthplace, there is a map of Cuba, where the company was born and from where the company had to flee in 1959.
10. 1800 TEQUILA
1800 Tequila released the fourth edition of their Essential Artists series. The stylized design of this limited edition tequila is located on the insides of the bottle. The artwork portrays a group of soldiers looking back at a burning castle, over which a giant eagle is killing a giant snake.
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