BAKARUDI Infused Rum
Inspired by Japanese brush paintings and my love for fruity cocktails, I created a fictional infused rum brand that incorporated some of my favorite flavors & gave me an excuse to play around with oriental brushes.
I fell in love with Japanese brush paintings when I was first introduced to them while playing a special game called Okami during my childhood, and I always wanted to learn how to imitate them. The best start was drawing fruit, and it gave me the idea of incorporating these designs onto packaging labels.
Dragon fruits are already complex objects to draw, and this design took me several attempts to finally capture not only the look of a dragon fruit but also the aesthetic & balance of the thicker brush strokes from the oriental brush. For the background, I created an aged paper texture similar to the natural Japanese washi used for traditional print & paintings.
Once I felt satisfied with how my fruit came out, I added an additional paper overlay to desaturate the design from any text & information needed for this fictional product without completely clouding the beautiful designs. I decided to use these labels for an infused rum concept because glass liquor bottles can be designed so beautifully & they’re arguably a collector’s item for many.
I wanted to aim for mockups that were not only gorgeous, but had the detail to show the difference in texture between the label and the bottle. Washi paper is soft yet textured, it feels natural, so it was important to show the contrast against the glossy & reflective surface of glass.
Each label has written kanji for “rum liquor” to give it more of an imported authentic feel onto the fictional brand, and I chose a bold san-serif font to balance it.
We have three flavors: dragon fruit, peach & orange. Those were the most fun to draw. I also included the direct Japanese translation of each flavor in romaji. Fun fact: dragon fruit is also called dragon fruit in Japan.
Credit:
Bottle Mockup by Rami Kelazle from HexenDesigns.