Premium liquor AND a bottle you can keep and display atop your office desk, dining room shelf, or living room table? Now that’s genius. Fans of 1800 Silver Tequila will go bonkers over the brand’s new Essential Artists campaign, which features limited-edition bottles designed by nine international artists. Each of the bottles has a very unique and distinctive aesthetic; from the sci-fi influenced, comic-book-meets-Mexican-pop-art designs of Mexico City-based illustrator Jorge Alderete to the surreal dreamscapes created by San Francisco-based illustrator Hannah Stouffer, each design is a true collector’s item.
Among my favorites is the bottle designed by Atlanta-based graphic artist Dosa Kim (top image). There’s a whimsical, magical quality to his work — from the kaleidoscopic color scheme to the collage-like quality of the images used (if you look closely, you’ll notice that those feather-like strokes of color are, in fact, small rodents; they look like rats or raccoons to me, but I’ll let y’all decipher this one!). I could try and interpret the design and give y’all some shpeel about the rat race, of the hunter-versus-the-hunted, but really, only Kim knows what message he wanted to convey. I can say, however, that Kim’s work often revolves around notions of hope and triumph, which is why he always incorporates his trademark logo, which bears the phrase: “Some of us will find our way home.” The logo is, of course, featured on this bottle (it’s the stamp on the upper right-hand corner).
Detroit native Chris Dean also created a stand-out design for the Artist Essentials campaign (second image from the top). There’s a vintage and even nostalgic feel to his design, which depicts a young woman toiling away with test tubes at a seedy-looking laboratory. We’re left to wonder whether there’s a cryptic motive behind her little science experiment, which is precisely the type of engagement Dean hopes to get from his audience. Pretty ill, right?
Only 1800 bottles of each design are available (catchy tie-in back to the brand name, right?) and they’ll be available in August.
$34.99 each; Visit 1800Tequila.com for more information.
