Packaging Design Spotlight: Le Tourment Vert Absinthe

Award-winning international branding agency Turner Duckworth has created new packaging for French distillery Vinet Ege. The company’s Le Tourment Vert brand absinthe now gets a unique bottle and box that captures the unique flavor of this once controversial spirit.

The design is in many ways a study in paradoxes, mixing refined artistic flourishes with simple, almost crude elements. For example, the Turner Duckworth staff has daringly juxtaposed the bottle’s sleek frosted finish and stylish flowing shape with a somewhat plain cork closure that's sealed with an understated paper strip.

Likewise for the box, which contrasts its rich pebbled finish and sophisticated typography with void fill that appears to be shredded newsprint.

It’s an audacious combination of elements, yielding a striking looking package that suprises and delights with each new glance. Very impressive indeed.

Additionally, the design has deeper meanings incorporated into it. The swirling green-and-white pattern on the bottle is said to have been inspired by the cloudy, whirling patterns that emerge in absinthe when it’s mixed with water.

Similarly appropriate is the stylized demon that peers out temptingly in the midst of the undulating design. The brand name “Le Tourment Vert" is said to translate literally to “The Green Curse.” For ages absinthe has had a dark, demonic image owing largely to its alleged long-term effects on the brain. Because of that, the drink was outlawed in most places.

Recent advances, however, have removed the dangerous properties from this storied beverage, allowing it to be reintroduced in the U.S. as well as other countries. Nonetheless, regulations applying to the sale of absinthe still vary considerably around the world. Therefore, the design’s secondary labels that display mandatory information are made to be easily adapted to different regulatory requirements.

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