Award-winning packaging from Harcus Design.

Designing a Taste of Brazil: Harcus Design and Spicers Paper

Let’s raise a glass to the latest award-winning design that’s bringing the spirit of Brazil to life! The silver award-winning “Hola Ipanema Cachaça” packaging, created by Annette Harcus of Harcus Design (Australia), is a stunning ode to the famous beach and its most iconic muse, Helô Pinheiro. This limited edition design for Spicer’s paper merchant showcases the FSC® certified self-adhesive paper Manter Ipanema, which boasts an embossed texture that mimics the crystal white sand of Ipanema Beach. The result is a premium stock that evokes the vibrancy of Brazilian beauty and culture. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at the project and the inspiration behind it.

By: Annette Harcus

“‘Hola Ipanema Cachaça’ is an upbeat ode to Helô Pinheiro who was the inspiration for the popular jazz song ‘The Girl from Ipanema’.

“At the age of 17, Pinheiro (Heloísa Eneida Paes Pinto Mendes Pinheiro, better known as Helô Pinheiro) inspired the songwriters Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes when they saw her strolling to the beach in Ipanema, her native neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. From this 1965 hit song, she became forever immortalized as a symbol of Brazilian beauty.

“Another beauty is ‘Ipanema’, the bossa nova of premium embossed stocks which evokes the crystal white sand texture of Brazil’s famous beach with verve and brilliance. This spirit product was designed as a limited edition for the paper merchant Spicers, to launch the stock, ‘Manter Ipanema’ an FSC® Certified self-adhesive paper. Its inherent one-side emboss echoes the texture of the famous beach, with an X-dry treatment enhancing label performance. This premium stock is a new addition to the Spicers Wine & Gourmet Companion, a compendium of their range of narrow web self-adhesive stocks, used primarily in the packaging of wine and spirits, cosmetics, and health care.

“The ‘Hola Ipanema Cachaça’ label and packaging express its superior spirit credentials as well as the energy and liveliness of a summer Brazilian beach party. Cachaça is a distilled spirit made from fermented sugarcane juice. It is the most popular spirit among distilled alcoholic beverages in Brazil. Outside Brazil, cachaça is used almost exclusively as an ingredient in tropical drinks, with the caipirinha being the most famous cocktail. It is usually a white liquid, though when distilled in a copper distilling pot and aged in wood, a substantial change in its color occurs and is called ouro (gold) or envelhecida (aged). 

“Through the combination of type and visuals, the packaging radiates an exuberant 60s vibe expressing its Jamaican origins, rhythms, and passions. The packaging was invested with top-quality cues with its glass, timber stopper, and the label plus neck strap embellished with foil, embossing, and spot UV on the beautiful uncoated textured stock.

Vamos festejar!


Credits

Product concept, naming, and pack design: Harcus Design

Client: Spicers

Photography: Stephen Clarke

Art Direction: Harcus Design

Label printing: MultiColor Australiasia (Melbourne)

Bottle: Saverglass


Check out other Design 2023 winners here. If you want to enter our current Design 2024 competition, click here. See more from Harcus Design here.

Author: Graphis