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A$AP Rocky Launches a Whisky, Designs an Unusual Bottle for It

Celebrities like George Clooney, Diddy, Jay-Z and Ryan Reynolds have launched booze brands. The latest is A$AP Rocky, who’s taken things a step further and designed the packaging itself for Mercer + Prince, his new line of Canadian whisky.

The bottle is glass and the cups are plastic.

The combination was designed, as many things are, on the back of a napkin, according to a Forbes article:

“‘You could lay it on its side if that’s what you want,’ Rocky says, flipping his bottle onto the small bar table. He says he sketched his initial idea on a cocktail napkin a few years ago: A bottle framed by two clear cups at the top and the bottom, always ready made for celebrations and toasts. It’s a portable ritual.

"A mold-breaking bottle is just the most recent iteration of his aesthetic. 'I like the new New,’ the artist says. 'What’s the newest sound, what’s the new frequency we can tap into. What’s the new look, the new fit, the new cozy. Now it’s: What’s the new bottle look like?’”

Getting the cups to nest with the bottle was left to a traditional package designer to solve, and Britt West, VP of manufacturer Spirits of Gallo, explains it wasn’t easy:

“Those built-in clear cups gave spirits executives several headaches. 'It’s probably the most technical packaging I’ve done in my career,’ West says, explaining that there is no room for error in the manufacturing of the edges of the glass bottle and the clear plastic cups. If either edge is off by one millimeter (the thickness of a credit card), nothing fits.

”'That was part of Rocky’s process,’ West adds. 'You’ve got a moment to grab a consumer. There needs to be shelf impact, whether that’s at the bar or in a retail store, or if someone comes over and is just browsing by your home bar.’“

Mercer + Prince is currently sold out.

https://www.core77.com/posts/115252/AAP-Rocky-Launches-a-Whisky-Designs-an-Unusual-Bottle-for-It