Alive Kombucha

Package Design + Branding

Alive Kombucha is a fictional kombucha tea line I created for this branding concept.

The goal for this project was to bring kombucha to the luxury market, using variable printing technology to make each bottle unique and special.

While I had encountered lots of organic, bohemian-looking kombucha brands (and who doesn’t love tie dye?), I had yet to see a brand that highlighted the science behind kombucha and marketed it as a high-end commodity – a concept that I thought had a lot of potential.

Concept

My concept for the brand was to highlight the cellular uniqueness of each batch of kombucha, as well as the live microscopic enzymes in every bottle – hence the name Alive. I developed a simple lettermark that resembled the view through the eyepiece of a microscope: Alive’s signature ‘a’ in a circle.

I wanted the branding to be minimal, clean, and look like it wouldn’t be out of place in a lab (I even sourced the Boston Round bottles for the kombucha from a lab supply wholesaler).

I had the idea to set up a printing system that would take multiple microscopic images of each batch of kombucha. Then I could use variable printing to print the images on the circle of each logo, overprinted with one of the many brand colour combinations. This way, each customer could see the unique enzymes in the bottle in their hand. With the correct printing processes set up, I thought it was so crazy, it just might work.

Microscope slides showing live enzymes in Kombucha.
‍Photo credit: u/Nicaara
Moodboard showing various inspiration for colour, type, and imagery.

Strategy

After designing the logo, labels, and colour palette, I set to work trying to photograph the enzymes in a bottle of unfermented kombucha. Unfortunately, my kids’ microscope (really a glorified magnifying glass) didn’t cut it, but I was able to get some help from a kind kombucha enthusiast/Redditor with a fancy microscope, who agreed to let me use his magnified kombucha images for this project.

Deliverables

Printed Packaging

  • Label designs for each of the 3 tea flavour blends
  • Box design
  • Coaster design

Digital Products

  • Mini brand guide PDF
  • Complete logo package