Kvass!

Ok, I know I promised the next post would be all warm and fluffy, but it turns out to be more like chilly and sleek, sorry about that. But hey, it's the heat of the summer, who's to complain? Anyway, on to the subject...

Kvass is a traditional Russian refreshing drink, made of rye bread... wait a minute, this is a Georgian drink we're talking about here. Why would someone make Georgian kvass? Another of life's great mysteries? Well, not really. Fact is, kvass has always been a hugely popular drink in the former Soviet republics and remains so to this day.

Nothing much to say about the label itself, though. It's traditional, heavily relies on stock images, with the exception of those rye ears, entirely hand made and assembled in Photoshop by yours truly. Done last summer, for a small Georgian enterprise specialized in non-alcoholic refreshing beverages.

Sazandari Lemonades

If you follow this blog, you might know that last year I got a full-time job, which pretty much meant the end of my freelance career. Still, from time to time, I've been able to squeeze some freelance jobs into my schedule. So I'm planning to dedicate the next few posts to some of such works done last year and earlier this year, starting with a series of refreshing drinks from the summer of 2012.

Sazandar (Georgian form sazandari) is a word of Persian origin, used as the name for the traditional three-man folk bands, popular in 19th century Azerbaijan, Iran, Armenia and Georgia. There's a chain of restaurants in Georgia, named Sazandari, offering traditional Georgian cuisine. Such restaurants often serve exclusive drinks under their own label -- mostly refreshing beverages. This is exactly the case here.

The task was straightforward: a series of labels with "traditional" (or, rather, pseudo-traditional) elements, in sync with the general style of the interiors and exteriors of the restaurants in question. In plain English it basically means trowing in some wood and stone textures. Oh, and chains! They love chains.

For the first time, I have used digital matte painting techniques in this design. Again, in plain English it means taking a bunch of moderately crappy photo materials and digitally overpainting them to the point when it all starts looking cool. Learning to work with a graphics tablet finally paid off...

The old man in a traditional Georgian costume you see in the trademark looks all peaceful an noble, but don't let the looks deceive you! Actually, he's a Frankenstein monster, assembled from different photos and stock materials and heavily overpainted to hide the "stitches". On top of it, he's playing an instrument made of a bloated dead pig. Monster!

Ok, enough scary stories. Next time it's gonna be all warm and fluffy, I promise. See ya!

Ayran

Ayran is a cold drink, made of yoghurt mixed with water, usually salted, sometimes carbonized. Primarily a Turkish beverage, it's a popular drink in many countries around the Black and the Caspian Seas. Despite being so widely spread among our neighbors (Turkey and Armenia in the south, Azerbaijan in the east, Caucasian peoples in the north), the drink somehow managed to avoid Georgia, where it was practically unknown until recently. With the expansion of Turkish businesses into post-Soviet Georgia and opening of many Turkish restaurants in Tbilisi and other major Georgian cities, it was inevitable that the Turkey's most popular drink would eventually find its way to the Georgian market.

The drink is mostly being imported from Turkey and Armenia, but recently some local companies have started producing their own ayran. One of such companies contacted me a little while ago, ordering the label design for their new-born product. Their only demand was to make green the dominant color, partly in an effort to make it more distinguishable from the local dairy product style with dominant blue/red/white color schemes. Also, for some reason they didn't elaborate on, the label had to feature the Armenian name for ayran -- tan. The rest was entirely up to me.

I decided to go with a thick, "milky" hand-drawn font for the main title. Then I dug up a nice milk-splash stock image and placed it on a "condensated" background, emphasizing a cold-served product. A tiny bit of "orientalish" ornaments, some fashionable reflections and I was almost set. Almost, because I had to come up with some sort of a logo for the manufacturer.

The company in question is called Agapi Ltd. Agapi (more correct spelling would be aghapi) is a Georgian version of the Greek word agape, which means "non-corporal love." So I decided to go with a "milk from the heart" theme, visualized quite literally, as you can see.

Below is the finished label. It's circular, meaning it wraps around the whole diameter of the bottle. Hence the "double" design, so that it remains interesting from more possible angles, leaving the technical parts squeezed in-between the lead design elements.

And here's a digital simulation of the label attached to the actual bottle, as it would appear on the final product. The bottle is made of glossy white plastic and has a green cap to match the label.

Lemonade for the Masses

The summer is hot, even here, in Lithuania. Now imagine how hot it must be in Georgia, which is some 2500 kms to the south. Luckily, I have a strong base of lemonade-making customers there, who are more than eager to provide you with cheap, but nonetheless tasty refreshing drinks. What more can you dream of in the heat of the summer? Ice-cream, maybe... but we're getting distracted.

So here it is -- a series of aerated refreshing drinks from one of my regular clients based in Western Georgia. Actually, it's a brewery, but it produces large amounts of non-alcoholic drinks as well, like many other Georgian breweries do. The series is called Tskhratskaro and it comes sugar-free. Please, don't try to pronounce the name, unless you're a native Georgian speaker, otherwise you may receive a permanent damage to your utterance apparatus. Literally, it means "nine springs" and it's a toponym -- two mountains, a mountain pass and a village is called by that name, although the product itself has no connection to any of those geographic places.


There's nothing much to say about technicalities. Fast order, limited budget for stock images, basic printing technology. Designed for 1 and 1,5 liter PET bottles. Done in CorelDRAW X5, photos edited in Corel PHOTO-PAINT.

Sea Paradise

These labels were sent to the printer almost a month ago, but I'm posting them only now. I've been very busy lately, but to be completely honest, I simply forgot about them. Now my memory is back and I'm writing this post.

There is a restaurant in Tbilisi, called Zghvis Samotkhe ("Sea Paradise"). They have their own brand of aerated refreshing drinks, called the same name and bottled exclusively for them, which is a common practice in Georgian restaurants. I had done quite a few label designs for such "restaurant lemonades" in the past, and this was just another order in that line.

As they usually do, the owner wanted me to match the labels with his restaurant's visual style, so I studied some photos before setting to work. The restaurant has a "traditional Georgian" setting, which is a highly popular cliche for such mid-level establishments. I was unable to find anything sea-related on the photos, except the facade stonework reminding beach pebbles, which I heavily utilized in the design.

This month has been quite fruitful in terms of design (which, unfortunately, hasn't left much room for art), so stay tuned -- more design stuff is coming soon.