Carlsberg Packaging Great Taste

Packaging

Quality in a label means quality in the contents

The Carlsberg Group is one of the largest brewing companies in the world, producing more than 500 beverages ranging from internationally recognized beers to soft drinks and bottled water. That's a lot of different labels. But Carlsberg knows that packaging sends signals and that quality in the label translates to quality in the contents.

A few years ago, Carlsberg beer was sold mainly in bulk, their product line was narrow and differentiation among its top competitors was almost non-existent. Additionally, Carlsberg had been losing market share to wines and other beverages.

Against this backdrop, the strategic decision was made to focus sales at the individual, beer-by-beer level, with the aim to increase packaging value for each beer bottle and every type of Carlsberg beer. This became our challenge.

Re-interpreting the classics
Our mission to redesign packaging for some of Carlsberg's most important brands began in the Carlsberg archives, where we searched for an expression that was both classic and modern. Our resulting concepts were inspired by one particularly powerful label design and by many handwritten typefaces with small variations in spacing and a loosely scripted text.

At the same time, we were asked to apply our method towards Carlsberg's interests in the lucrative water market with a branded redesign of the standard water bottle. The resulting Carlsberg Kildevæld bottle stands iconically in the form of a single drop of water, visually uninterrupted by enforcing structures that are cleverly hidden beneath the label.

The new labels have done their job. And as a result of our work on the Carlsberg Pilsner, Carl's Special and Elephant Beer, Kurvand, "47", MasterBrew labels as well as the Kildevæld bottle and label, these brands today share strong market positions and are clearly distinguishable from the competition.

LOOP delivered

Redesign of Carls series labels

New label design for Kildevæld

Redesign of Elephant Beer label

Designed in collaboration with Ole Lund