Carlsberg UK · Taxi Studio · 2017
The København Collection.
A limited edition designed to run for one season. It became the longest-running limited edition in Carlsberg's history, sold 6% more beer, and won six awards including a D&AD Wood Pencil.
The brief
Change perception, and get back to Denmark.
Carlsberg UK had a new Danish-focused strategy and a perception problem: a Danish beer that most British drinkers no longer thought of as Danish. Limited-edition packaging was the vehicle for reconnecting the brand with its roots — visible on shelf, in the fridge and at festivals, without waiting for a full identity change.
What I made
Three ingredients, drawn the Danish way.
The work borrows from the beautiful simplicity of Danish design. Each pack carries an abstract interpretation of one of Carlsberg's most iconic ingredients: beautiful barley, the mighty hop, and Carlsberg's legendary brewers' yeast, the strain that is the basis of the majority of today's lagers.
Rendered as pattern rather than illustration, the ingredients read at distance and hold up small. That decision is why the work travelled: the green-and-white patterning, already synonymous with Carlsberg, could be lifted straight off the bottle onto other surfaces without redrawing anything.
What happened
The pattern became a festival headliner.
People liked it enough that Carlsberg kept extending it. The patterning took on a life of its own beyond packaging and headlined the brand's festival presence across the UK.
Recognition
Credits
Designed at Taxi Studio for Carlsberg UK, January 2017
All content © Carlsberg
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christievgray@gmail.comSpeaking enquiries, collaborations, and conversations about the work.