Tipping Point wines gift packaging recently won Gold at the New Zealand Pride in Print awards, GSM takes a look…
The Background on Tipping Point Wines
Al Brown is recognised around the world as a leading New Zealand Chef and Restaurateur. He is also quite the entrepreneur who values aligning himself with people, organisations and brands he feels a strong connection with. Partnering with Constellation Brands, Al launched Tipping Point Wines. Wine which aims to do good and taste great, with each varietal supporting five not-for-profit organisations that are working hard to create a better future for New Zealand: The Bumble Bee Conservation Trust, Sea Cleaners, Kea Conservation Trust, Wilding Free Mackenzie and Te Tira Whakamātaki–Southern Seabirds Trust.
Having previously worked with Al Brown and Constellation on the original Tipping Point wine labels, it was an obvious choice that Gary Stewart, from The Gas Project (located in Central Otago), would design the gift boxes too.
With Tipping Point being crafted from the ground up to embrace New Zealand’s genuine, no-fuss lifestyle, Al Brown’s love for informality shines through every aspect of the brand. The original brief was to create a brand that was fun, accessible and down to earth. The packaging had to reflect those values. The brief was quite simple—create a series of gift boxes for the Christmas season that featured the fun icons from the Tipping Point labels. Make them feel special and make them stand out from competitor gift boxes.
Using Existing Elements
Gary described the creative process as pretty straightforward. ‘It was really about putting the existing elements into a different form and format to suit the gift market’. There wasn’t a lot of evolution from the original brief. The team landed on one of the options Gary had presented from the original set of visuals. From there it was really colour and embellishment refinements to get to artwork stage. 
Printing Tipping Point Packaging
Constellation Wines have had a long-standing relationship with Blue Star Collard (Auckland), so it was only natural they print with them. Gary was more than happy with this, as he is an avid supporter of printing locally. As he states, ‘Personally, I like to print as much as possible on these shores. Call it national pride. Timing played a big part also, there was no time to look and ship from offshore’.
Clear communication with Blue Star Collard was greatly appreciated by Gary. Especially as they gave him feedback on how he could tweak embellishments to get the design on budget. Initially, the client and he had gone to town on foiling and other embellishments which meant the numbers didn’t stack up. They needed to pull back a little.
Sustainable Packaging Board
Gary also relied on the expertise of the team at Blue Star Collard to select the appropriate packaging board. They chose BJ Ball Tiger Board 360gsm —a cost effective multi-layered, one side double coated, folding box board (FBB) with high bulk and excellent stiffness making it ideal for carrying contents such the Tipping Wines brandy-shaped bottle. It is also a good match for the brand’s sustainability ethos as it is FSC certified.
Printing Kraft Side
To emphasise the sustainability message, Bluestar recommended printing on the kraft side of Tiger Board. This also achieved the natural aesthetic desired by the client. Blue Star printed the project on their Heidelberg 6 Colour 72. Blue Star Collard account manager, Glenn Woolford, explains how ‘Printing on the kraft side of the board was tricky to get an even colour impression. To counteract the colour soaking into the kraft side of the board, we adjusted the PMS colours to make them stronger’. He continues, ‘we were also concerned about the risk of cracking on such a robust board. However, our precision die-cutting and having the correct impression pressure made all the difference’.
Team Success for Tipping Point Packaging
With the gift boxes in store, and a gold medal from Pride in Print, the teams from Tipping Point Wines, The Gas Project and Blue Star Collard are very happy with the finished result. Gary’s only regret is that he should have asked for more (full) samples… box and wine!
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GSM would like to thank Gary Stewart @The Gas Project, @Al Brown @Tipping Point Wines and Glenn Woolford @Blue Star Collard for contributing to GSM
Tiger FBB is available in New Zealand through BJ Ball.
For our Australian readers, the equivalent folding box board product through Ball & Doggett is Simcote.
For more Information on these stocks go to:
- Australian readers: //ballanddoggett.com.au
- New Zealand readers: //bjall.co.nz
This article was originally published in GSM21. To read this and other great articles purchase this issue here.
