SAN FRANCISCO (May 3, 2010) – Espolón™, the super-premium tequila that evokes the storied culture of “real Mexico,” is returning to the U.S. market. Skyy Spirits, the U.S.-based wholly owned subsidiary of Gruppo Campari and the definitive marketer and distributor of super-premium and luxury spirits brands in North America, is proud to bring this 100-percent Weber Blue Agave tequila brand north of the border again with a new look, yet with the same award-winning liquid.

Espolón was originally introduced in the United States in 2000, garnering praise from Tequila experts and winning a Double Gold Medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition as well as a Platinum Rating by the Beverage Testing Institute. Gruppo Campari, who in 2009 bought the Espolón brand along with the San Nicolas Distillery where it is made, is reintroducing the brand following a three year hiatus in the US.

While Espolón’s liquid remains the same, the packaging and look/feel of the brand have been redesigned and repositioned, with a focus on trumpeting life in real Mexico. The new decorative label on each Espolón bottle illustrated by Steven Noble pays tribute to the Mexican artists who inspired the world with true portrayals of the country’s rich history and complex everyday life. Striking, stark block print artwork features the characters of Guadalupe, Rosarita and the proud rooster, Ramón, reliving Mexico’s rich cultural stories.

The Espolón Blanco label, entitled “Independencia,” illustrates Guadalupe and Rosarita joining Father Miguel Hidalgo’s valiant campaign for Mexican independence from Spain. The Espolón Reposado label tells the story of “recuerdo” (“remembrance”), in which Guadalupe and Rosarita grace the markets of Mexico City, the new metropolis built on the fallen Aztec capital. Here, the couple schemes to infuse elements of Aztec culture into every market to ensure the remembrance of that great society. The labels serve to provide history and offer insight into the rich and fascinating stories of real Mexico.

“Procter & Gamble’s Old Spice brand was plagued by negative consumer perceptions that all the scents smelled the same, old and musky. Working as a part of a cross-functional project team, Landor Associates Cincinnati along with Steven Noble’s illustrations were able to deliver packaging that clearly communicated a range of unique fresh fragrance experiences from Old Spice.”

Describe the brief from the client:
Old Spice first hit shelves in 1937 and quickly became a top selling shave soap and aftershave. In the 1990’s, P&G purchased the brand and relaunched it as a male high performing deodorant. While the deodorant was offered in various scents, the early technology forced them all to have similar base note characteristics. By the mid 2000’s, Old Spice had lost its positive scent equity to the Axe brand, and was losing relevancy among young men, an important consumer target. We were asked to reinvigorate the brands fragrance heritage by developing packaging for a new line of four unique experiential deodorants based on the concept, ‘Scents inspired by the freshest places on earth.’

Description of how you arrived at the final design:
Following qualitative research, full colour imagery was identified as the best way to bring to life destination-themed fragrances. The classic hand etched style of illustration common to 19th century nature books was leveraged to communicate Old Spice’s 70+ years of heritage. Delightful surprises, including sharks and bears were added to each illustration, enhancing the consumer’s emotional connection with the fragrance as well as updating the traditional illustration style. Red, traditionally the brands dominant colour, was used sparingly after it was identified as a signal of heavy, musky scents.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market:
Early sales results indicate that the initiative is expected to exceed expectations

View packaging: http://www.thedieline.com/process/CreateJournalEntryComment?moduleId=7391668&entryId=8303229

Vic Polkinghorne, creative director of Sell! Sell!, commented “Fentimans make great soft drinks but they’re in a market that’s dominated by big brands and heavy spenders. To make their budgets work as hard as possible they need something cheeky or provocative to help them cut through the blizzard of Christmassy nonsense that’s spewed forth at this time of year”.

Nashville, Tenn. (June 28, 2010) - For the fourth consecutive year The Buntin Group has been recognized with an American Advertising Federation (AAF) National ADDY Award. The 2010 award, for Campaign Illustration, was earned by the Nashville, Tenn.-based agency for its work on Cracker Barrel Old Country Store’s visual branding materials using illustrations created by known illustrator Steven Noble from San Francisco.

The “Timeless Country Values” illustrations - some of which can be seen here - were used across multiple Cracker Barrel campaign components including out-of-home, in-store, promotional and direct mail.

“Cracker Barrel is one of the most carefully nurtured and managed brands in the U.S. today, if not globally,” notes Buntin Group President and CEO Jeffrey Buntin, Jr. “It has been, and continues to be, a great privilege to grow this iconic ‘Old Country Store’ brand through a well-planned American Values positioning.”

Buntin’s relationship with Cracker Barrel began over two decades ago, when the brand operated just 17 fuel stops in eastern Tennessee. Today, the company operates nearly 600 Old Country Stores in 46 states and has been voted “Best Family Dining” for 19 consecutive years by Restaurants & Institutions magazine.

The National ADDYs were presented earlier this month in Orlando, Fla., in conjunction with the AAF National Conference. More than 1,500 entries were judged with about 250 awards given.

See article in AdPulp:
http://www.adpulp.com/archives/2009/12/santa_wrestling.php

Sell! Sell! in London is helping Fentimans, the independent Hexham-based soft drinks company, tug Coca-Cola’s long white beard this Christmas.
Created by Sell! Sell!, the ad depicts an old-fashioned illustration of a Fentimans Santa wearing the colours of Curiosity Cola and workman’s boots standing victorious over a chubby Father Christmas lying prostrate and dressed in his customary red outfit much championed and featured by Coca Cola.

Vic Polkinghorne, creative director of Sell! Sell!, commented “Fentimans make great soft drinks but they’re in a market that’s dominated by big brands and heavy spenders. To make their budgets work as hard as possible they need something cheeky or provocative to help them cut through the blizzard of Christmassy nonsense that’s spewed forth at this time of year”.
By the way, “Reet” is Northern English slang for “right.”

BrandNew posted a piece about the Lobster.com logo. They’re a very well-read and well-respected design blog:
“CRUSTACEAN AHOY”
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/a_clawed_orange_crustacean_is_worth_a_thousand_words.php

In a bold move, the logo doesn’t spell out the word “Lobster,” and instead it simply shows you one, an immediately identifiable lobster that works as a very charming rebus and turns a URL that could look like one of those generic catch-all web sites full of ads into a kind of leader URL. Nail hired illustrator Steven Noble to create the custom woodcut illustration of a Maine lobster and then added a slightly distressed, serif “.com” creating an amusing fusion of vintage illustration and contemporary technology. I don’t normally think of the Internet as a place where I would get my lobsters, not that I buy lobster ever, but now I know where to get some shipped right to my house after I’m done posting to Brand New.

See scratchboard styles: www.stevennoble.com

The Woodcut style is defined by simulating the old fashioned woodblock carvings of the 18th century and often re-creating a retro modern version to fit today’s needs for advertising, packaging design, publishing and logo identity purposes. The technique requires the use of the scratchboard medium which works most effectively to accomplish this end result. Furthermore, the style is mostly associated with “bold” , less detailed, line strokes along with loose uncleaned cuts along the outer edge of the illustration. This is a clear distinction from the other scratchboard styles such engraving, and steel engraving styles.

See woodcut samples: http://www.stevennoble.com/v/Woodcuts/

The scratchboard engraving style is more closely associated with the old traditional engravings of the 19th century with some slight variation. The line work is semi to highly detailed with the lines flowing in a parallel fashion with cross cuts to form breaks in the tapered tips of the lines and cross shaded lines to form the darkened shaded areas. The style encompasses what some people associate as the “Wall Street” journal style. Line engraving is a similar process in that the black and white lines are applied positively onto the “white” (un-inked) scratchboard. The lines can, thereby, be scrapped off to create broken lines in order to soften and taper an edge. The second process is accomplished by using a knife to negatively remove the pre-inked blackened scratchboard to reveal the white board in closely controlled and parallel strokes to create the effect.

The “steel engraving” style is created similarly to all the above techniques. However, the line style is more closely associated with the “currency” bills such as the US Dollar currency and other bank notes. The “original” technique employed the use of a chisel and a steel or copper plates in which a small bar of hardened steel with a sharp point was used. This is pushed along the plate to produce thin strips of waste metal and thin furrows. This is followed by a scraper which removes any burs as they will be an impediment to the ink. It is important to note that engraving must be done in the reverse or mirror image, so that the image faces the correct way when the die prints. One trick of the trade was for engravers to look at the object that they were engraving through a mirror so that the image was naturally reversed and they would be less likely to engrave the image incorrectly. Steel plates can be case hardened to ensure that they can print thousands of times with little wear. Copper plates can not be case hardened but can be steel-faced or nickel-plated to increase their life expectancy.

Many clients request a customized illustration for their TradeMarks and logo identities because of their need for a very specific image that is closely associated with their corporate identity. For example, Land’s End required a very specific type of lighthouse to represent their company. Aerial Funds needed a turtle illustration that was closely tied to the central theme of their company which was the story of the “Turtle and the Hare.” The White House Historical Association wanted an illustration that represented the specific perspective that they wanted to achieve with the White House building.

See logo samples: http://www.stevennoble.com/v/Logos/