We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer about their original and creative design work. is an award-winning creative designer, that makes our world a better place with their original works.
("") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work . Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
: I wanted to bring some novelty and propose a new consumption experience for aperitif drink that better fits news standards.
: It can be summarized in three words: singularity, surprise and seduction; the best way to please a woman.
: I am going to continue to develop my business and find new clients in France but also abroad where there is an untapped potential market for such a sweet and premium “girly” drink. This award will help me a lot to promote my beverage. The idea is to make Dame de Pique become a famous beverage brand and use the distribution of my bottles as a strong communication media for my other design activities. I am going to expand Dame de Pique collection by designing new brand products. The idea behind is to turn a beverage brand into a generic one and take advantage of such a disruption. Let’s see what is going to happen !
: The design process started in April 2015 and ended in December the same year. It includes preliminary design patterns and models realized by the designer itself then sample production, and finally mass production. The aluminium bottles were manufactured in China by EBI, a Chinese professional manufacturer. Crown caps came from Finland and were manufactured by Finn-Korkki while the cardboard pack was made in France by BCO Packaging communication. The packs were finally assembled in France and ready to sell in the beginning of January 2016.
: It was more an inspiration: I first developed this design in order to distribute my own wine production. When my grandfather died 3 years ago, no one in my family wanted to keep his creation alive and for me there was a risk his know-how purely and simply disappears. So I rolled up my sleeves and I started to be a wine maker in parallel with my job as an architect. The production was in urgent need of rejuvenation so I decided to design new bottles with a new logo and graphic chart so they can really make the difference on the alcoholic beverage market.
: The design, brand logo and distribution are the exclusive property of Dame de Pique, the company I run. I do not plan to lease the production rights - at least for the moment - and I hope I could keep developing the brand for a long time !
: I did not find on the existing market a design that fulfills my requirements. Besides, I wanted to create something unique, practical and beautiful that could create the desire in consumers’ mind. The Dame de Pique French premium sloe wine is absolutely unique in the world. The least I could do was to design a taylor-made packaging !
: Maybe Ora Ito’s creation for Heineken to a certain extent. I love the idea to break the code !
: Women. Dame de Pique sloe wine is rather a “girly” drink, sweet and low in alcohol.
: It’s probably the first time that container and content are so closely connected together. I mean; I produced the wine and I designed myself the packaging. It’s still quiet unusual !...
: The name of the brand refers to an old local legend my grandfather told me when I was a child: the Dame de Pique (literally Queen of Spades in French) was the ghost of a middle age woman who haunted the blackthorn woods where my family harvest. It strongly influences the general design and the graphic chart (black, red and white). The other inspiration came from the world of poker. These two aspects contribute to giving the brand a very peculiar atmosphere which acts as a guideline for all graphic illustrations and branded product.
: I first used basic tools such as my usual sharp pencil and the writing pad that never leaves me. It helped me to synthesize my ideas by producing preliminary sketches. Then I used CAO and DAO software to present a more accurate picture and moved the project forward according to the first reviews.
: The small size of the bottle we designed especially for this beverage required a taylor-made packaging. It should showcase its content as well as being convenient for gift giving or for use during parties. The particular shape was created for this purpose. Following the same idea, aluminium and cardboard we used were chosen both their lightness and printability. The result of all this work is a very unconventional packaging, at least for this kind of spirit.
: I worked alone for the design process. I occasionally asked manufacturers for advice to be sure my proposals were technically and economically realistic.
: Using 3D softwares helped me a lot to refine and add more details to the packaging after I validated the first cardboard models.
: Not especially. I just made preliminary researches on internet to make an idea about existing market but when I started to design, I wanted my mind to be as free as possible to follow my own way.
: The hardest part of the design activity was to conciliate the design process of the bottle with the production and constraints of the wine. This choice was made for economic reasons but also to keep the same guiding vision all along the production and save lots of time. It limits the exchanges and in the same time provided a greater reactivity to problems encountered. Those were mainly due to technical issues, deadlines and production costs to handle.
: It was quiet lately. After my design was selected to be displayed on the “favourite design workbook 2016”, I realized It could probably worth entering a world design competition to see the results.
: I wanted to do the entire job on my own but as an architect, I was not very used to working with DAO software like Illustrator. So I had to learn it. It was the same thing for Keyshot Luxion I used for renderings.
: This interview was quiet exhaustive ! Santé ! (as we say in French) will be my last word ;-)
