When Željko Knežević and Matko Barun of fledgling distillery High Spirits planned to launch their premium gin, they realized that a superb packaging was needed to make some waves. Luckily they knew whom to turn to: Izvorka Jurić and her studio in Zagreb have repeatedly proven that they are a first class address for design that can make a difference.

Sampé gin is a strong alcoholic drink distilled domestically from the finest Croatian grapes. With its refined combination of herbal aromas that include pine, lemon, and Adriatic salt, it has a strong connection to the sea. Izvorka Jurić (Creative and Art Director) and Jurica Kos (Senior Designer) explored this link for their approach. They comment on the background of the name:

Many countries on the shores of the great sea know the legend of how St. Peter once caught the John Dory fish and left fingerprints on its body; that’s why this sea delicacy is still called by his name: Šanpjer, Sant-Pierre, Sampé. Inspired by an ancient tale, we gave the name Sampé to a premium gin that pays tribute to the Mediterranean – a mythical place where the divine touch permeates nature and its precious gifts.

This theme was then translated to a unique bottle and label design:

The originally designed bottle has the shape of the sea surface on the front. The brand name is mirror printed on the back of the bottle, so on the front, it is visible through sea waves and the gin liquid which gives the impression that the brand name Sampé is in the water. This position deforms the typography and creates exciting shapes and structures that change by turning the bottle in hand or changing the viewing angle. […] The light blue-colored glass and wooden stopper in the conical shape of a sailor’s cap contribute to the overall Mediterranean feel.

For the typography, Jurić and Kos selected Rector “for the ideal combination of monumental and graceful”. The lapidary serif with sharply cut shapes and majestic capitals was designed by Hrvoje Živčić and published by Production Type. On the labels, Rector is contrasted with a sans serif by another Croatian type designer: Nikola Djurek’s Brioni Sans, available from Typotheque.

The hopes of the distillery were fulfilled: Sampé won Gold in the IdejaX Best of Ad-Making Awards and Silver in the Dieline Awards, one of the world’s most prestigious packaging design awards.

Website detail with the origin story of the name

The distorted letterforms of the brand name as seen from the front of the bottle

Bottle neck with the brand name in raised ink

The slogan in caps from Rector Bold …

… and how this setting translates to the raised glass lettering on the bottle

The brand story as shown on the side of the bottle, in English and Croatian, and set in Rector combined with Brioni Sans

The highlighted words in Brioni Sans caps are scaled to match the x-height of Rector.

The wooden stopper features a single S from Rector.

Website detail

The mirrored type on the back of the bottle

The second edition of independent literary magazine Носорог (Nosorog, “Rhinoceros”) uses Jannon throughout, paired with texts and hairlines set in Brioni Sans and some bigger headlines set in Activist. Layout and art direction by Kirill Gluschenko. Illustrations by Victoria Vinogradova and Valentin Tkach.

On their Facebook page, Носорог describe themselves as:

The literary magazine “Носорог” was founded in 2014 by the writers Katya Morozova and Igor Gulin, in 2015 the prose writer Stanislav Snytko joined the editorial board. Носорог publishes prose, poetry and philosophy, but is fundamentally devoid of critical and theoretical blocks, leaving the reader alone with texts and images. Each issue is composed according to the collage principle and combines different styles and forms, words and images that are not assembled into a single statement, but hold tension.

The Носорог Book Publishing House, founded in 2018, was a continuation and consequence of journalistic activities. The publishing house works mainly with large prosaic formats, the publication of which in a magazine usually stretched to several issues. The publishing house focuses on both modern literature and the phenomena of the past, which for some reason have not yet found access to the Russian-speaking reader.

A photographic monograph of Russian artist Anatoly Zverev, designed by Konstantin Eremenko, using Brioni Sans for the titles and the serif version of Brioni for the smaller text, and subheads. The book has been awarded at the D&AD Awards 2019 (Wood pencil), Type Directors Club Tokyo, 2019, and European Design Awards 2019 (Silver).

Brioni & Brioni Sans (Nikola Djurek, Cyrillic by Alexander Tarbeev) in use for The Art of Type (Искусство шрифта) by Solomon Telingater. Soft cover. Schrift Publishers, Moscow, 2015.

Watch Rustam and Eugene talk about Rediscovering Russian Typographic Heritage at Typographics 2021. Fonts In Use is proud to be a media partner of the conference. See more work by speakers of the 2021 edition.