Art Direction
Product Styling
Lighting
Editiing
The Aviation Gin brand relies heavily on the likeness of owner-spokesman Ryan Reynolds. Outside of celebrity branding the brand has a very confused aesthetic, evoking a mid-century smoking lounge aesthetic on their website but jumping all over the place on their social feed.
As for their core, smoke-room aesthetic, I feel that
1) this is a very limited aesthetic range,
2) the material choices (leather, aged hardwood, etc.) evoke a color and flavor palette that the final product does not deliver on, and
3) the bottle itself looks pretty mid across all the official photographs.
So I decided to give it a whirl myself. I soon realized why the bottle looked so mediocre in their existing photographs: The design of the bottle suggests one side is the front while the label declares the opposite side is the front. What gives? The ‘back’ of the bottle has interesting glass details: vertical lines and a prominent “A” for Aviation. The label does not try to integrate these glass elements. When viewed from the front, the only consistency between the label and the glass distortions behind it is the logo for the “A” (nevermind the “A” on the bottle is in reverse.
When I went to photograph the bottle myself this aesthetic clash made it very difficult to find a good angle; it kept looking ugly. But, I quickly realized that the glasswork alone was very pleasing...so OFF WITH THE LABEL.
I removed the label and let the ‘back’ of the bottle assume its natural role as the Front. Now free from the brand’s stifling aesthetic I highlighted the physical form of the bottle using bold colors that parallel the gin’s flavors.
(Incidentally this decision earned me a writeup in AdWeek).
Inspired by this new angle I sought out other liquors with similarly unique glassware.
Aviation Gin
Roku Gin
Haku Vodka