Meet Mr. Black: A Crowd-Funded Liquor With A Top-Shelf Design Concept
You know what they say about not being able to please everyone at once? Well, this new Australian brand doesn't even try. In a fantastic example of the new breed of crowd-sourced project that offer a clear, refreshing aesthetic vision, the team behind Australia's Mr. Black coffee liqueur sought out to accomplish two things with their bottle's new design: 1. To reflect its unique flavor and the correspondingly sophisticated taste level of its target drinker. 2. To showcase, but not distract from the product inside.
The coffee liqueur — richer and more intense than the usual sugary stuff occupying bar shelves these days — is made using a cold-press method, which coffee experts have already championed as pretty much the only way to go when it comes to drinking it chilled. To play up Mr. Black's design sense, the company enlisted Sydney-based artist Dale Bigeni to create a cool etched design that's only printed on the back of the bottle, keeping a minimalist look for the front side. Even cooler, Bigeni's "noirish" illustration of an owl only becomes more visible as the bottle empties, adding a touch of subtle whimsy to the concept.
Bottles, priced at approximately $55-60 AUS each ($50-55 US), are expected to hit stores and bars in Australia this October, with plans to roll out in the US by early 2014.
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