IT
IS
A
VERJUS
SPRIZZ

Werner Hauser, owner of the Hauser winery in Poysdorf, came to us at the end of 2017. He presented us with the idea of ​​creating a light alcoholic mixed drink out of verjus. Verjus — the essence of juvenile grapes— has recently been rediscoverend and springs a renaissance in the culinary world. Its taste is delicious, not only as a condiment for cooking, but also when mixed with soda. Werner experimented with verjus, soda, gin / vodka, and asked us specifically to design a logo for the drink. We were able to win Werner over for a holistic approach. Our first step was a thorough market analysis: The first stage was the history of Verjus.

In ancient times, verjus was used among many cultures as a medicin, delicacy and homespun remedy. It disappeared when the citrus fruit was brought to Europe from America. Now, after all these years, verjus has mysteriously reappeared. We were certain that our strategy had to be one thing above all: it had to create curiosity. It had to be a story of the mysterious ingredient and present it in a new perspective, it had to be mysterious, and ignite identification. A normative logo design could not lead us to where we wanted to go: To involve people in an active dialogue with this story and product idiology.

THE
CYCLE

We decided to take up the mysterious story of life in a cycle, and present it graphically. How did verjus travel through time from antiquity to presence? The laws of nature were our metaphorical incarnation: The tides. The Golden Ratio. The Fibonacci Sequence. Alchemical science of the past.

This is how the archetype for Jus (t) came to being. And with it the story of the “recurring cycle”. In a workshop we developed a concept together and decided to refine the recipe with floral and herbal essences in order to make two delicous drinks: Jus(t) No.1 and Jus(t) No.2.

THE
PRODUCT

While refining the recipe, Werner Hauser managed to get rid of all artificial substances that were in the prototype of the drink. In addition to the herbal essences, only high-quality artisan alcohols are added.

Now, two years later, Jus(t) is popular in Austria and Germany, and has already successfully expanded to Shanghai and Japan.

CONCEPT / CD
AD
COPY
PHOTO

Florian Kowatz
Denise Schindele
Sebastian Müller
Gregor Hofbauer