French dressing for brandy

We’ve had Harvey’s Bristol Cream sherry, Ty Nant mineral water and even the ill-fated Pepsi relaunch. One of the latest drinks to get the blue treatment is Courvoisier brandy, which can now be seen sporting its younger, ‘French blue’ branding on its gift box.

Created by drinks specialist Blackburn’s, the group which designed Harvey’s blue bottle, the box had to be ‘internationally understood’, according to consultancy principal John Blackburn. It was created to replace a ‘shiny blue carton’, says Blackburn’s designer Matt Thompson, to hold the new Blackburn’s-designed Courvoisier bottle introduced earlier this year.

Thompson and co-designer Sarah Roberts used the blue for the box, incorporating an embossed red ribbon to suggest a gift.

The word Courvoisier appears as a gift label on the box. This can be peeled off if the giver wants the contents of the box to remain a surprise until it is opened.

Blue was chosen for the new branding, which Blackburn’s has been working on for over two years, to reinforce the ‘Frenchness’ of Courvoisier’s Napoleon brand icon – the branding of rivals Hennessy, Martel and Remy Martin was deemed not to have a strong connection with being French.

Designer: Blackburn’s

Client: Allied Domecq