Vodka Advertisement

Recently I received a magazine advertisement order from the same customer, who ordered me Limonzala liqueur labels last year. Actually, it was a double order -- they wanted the ads for two vodkas, Vonost 88 and Bama. I needed to make something simple and conservative, suitable for their elegantly reserved labels.

Vonost 88, according to the advertisement, is the only vodka in the world that is fully corked. So I decided to use an image of a corkscrew in the design, beside the traditional Martini glass. I made everything strictly black-and-white, to match the minimalistic colors of the product.

As for Bama, it's short for "Alabama" (not "Obama," as some of you may have assumed), and it's filtered with the limestone quarried exclusively from that US state. The vodka is bottled in a transparent blue bottle, and there's a stylized diamond on its label, so I made a glowing blue background and placed a huge blue diamond beside the bottle and the glass.

You have already guessed it from my post, but still I'd like to stress out that I have designed only the magazine ads, not the products themselves. Label design belongs to the manufacturer (Solomon Spirits), and the ads are published here with their kind permission.

My First Daily Deviation!

If you know what deviantART is, then you most likely know what I'm talking about. If you don't know, here's the quick info: Each day a few selected works (a.k.a. deviations) from different members (a.k.a deviants) are displayed on the front page of this mega-popular art website, getting a huge amount of exposure for 24 hours. Such works, called Daily Deviations (commonly abbreviated as DD), retain their honorable status even after they are no longer showcased.

In order to be featured as a Daily Deviation, the artwork must be really interesting, original, innovative, provocative, funny, shocking, or otherwise appealing to the public. Anyone can suggest anything for DD, but only the gallery moderators and other distinguished members with proper rights decide whether it's worth to be featured or not. Daily Deviations are not given easily, and receiving one is a true award for any member of deviantART -- the biggest online art community in the world.

That's why I'm so happy and excited -- yesterday one of my works became a Daily Deviation! To be honest, I had been expecting it, but not so soon -- I've been only for a few months at deviantART and there are loads of a lot more popular works from other artists, waiting for their chance for years. It came as a pleasant surprise -- and twice as pleasant, because the "winner" turned out to be one of my favorite drawings (and the most "Georgian," at that): Tutarchela. Here's the link to the deviantART page with the artwork, where you can feast your eyes upon the shiny award and read some kind words accompanying it. Or you can just content yourself by what you see below:

As for the artwork itself, it's a bit different from my usual style, although the technique is the same combination of color pencils and ballpoint pens. I made the drawing in 2007 for an audio CD cover, ordered by a Georgian female folk-band Tutarchela for their second studio album -- Having Fun. The word "tutarchela" means "moonlight" in Mingrelian (one of the spoken languages in Georgia). I was asked to draw something beautiful, girlish and skittish, featuring the Moon and some spring flowers, in a traditional Western Georgian setting. Although it wasn't exactly my line of work, the fact that everyone liked the result makes me bold enough to say that I was up to the task.

Alright folks, I have to go now. But I'll be back soon with some design related news. Stay tuned!

The Milk Wars

It's another drawing from Politika series. I started it last year, but it's been finished only recently. It represents Putin and Medvedev engaged in "Holy Milk Wars" against Belarus and Lithuania. As you may know, in 2009 Russia's Sanitary Department banned milk imports from these two states, claiming that their products failed to meet certain quality standards. Although, the real reasons are obviously political: Belarus has refused to support Russia's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Lithuania is well known for being Georgia's primary ally in the Baltic region.

Banning imports is an approved method used by the Kremlin for "punishing" their disobedient neighbors. Back in 2006 Moscow banned Georgian and Moldavian wines and mineral waters, claiming to have found "dangerous additives" in them. Later the ban was lifted from Moldavian imports, but it still remains on Georgian products.