Featured image for DUTCH DESIGN SERIES FEATURING: SOGOOD

DUTCH DESIGN SERIES FEATURING: SOGOOD

by Dieline Author on 11/16/2016 | 3 Minute Read

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Today we are featuring SOGOOD an agency based out of Netherlands and highlighting their client Boomsma.

Agency: SOGOOD Brand: Boomsma

Tell us about SOGOOD? SOGOOD is a Dutch design agency specialized in packaging design. We always strive for the best and most effective design of the ‘brandmatch’ where brand and consumer needs meet. Outperform your competition!

How did all start? What did the initiators want to achieve? Full of energy, Ron van der Vlugt, Rob Verhaart (both art director) and Edwin Visser (strategy director) started SOGOOD on October 1st 2008. Each one acquired over 25 years of international design experience at various design and advertising agencies. SOGOOD is a dynamic design agency, anchored in the very best talents. From a small organization, we are dedicated to increasing the commercial clout of our clients. We came from a large design agency (part of TBWA) as partners and wanted to have direct contact with our clients and control over all our activities. We love to discuss the brand and how design can contribute to commercial success. 

What is your showcase? What can you tell us about it? Boomsma Distillery was founded in Leeuwarden, Netherlands in 1883. The fifth generation Boomsma introduced Boomsma Gin in 2016. Boomsma asked us to design the total package: bottle, logo, cap screening, and carton, as part of  a new view on the Boomsma brand and give direction for the future portfolio. The results are art directed by Rob Verhaart.

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What was your solution? The heritage, expertise in working with herbs and spices, producing jenever, and the expansion with a new copper boiler has resulted in the production of a Boomsma Gin. The taste distinguishes itself with typical Frisian herbs. Although the brand and product are from Friesland, the Boomsma family didn't want a typical Frisian appearance for its gin. The bottle must be an eye catcher in the (international) bars and a treat for in-home use. SOGOOD was given the liberty to create the shape of the bottle and the design of the label. In the Boomsma archives we found the remarkable diamond shaped logo from the early 20th century. We took this as a starting point for the design of the bottle and a new strengthened logo. It gives the bottle distinction and character, linking it to the roaring 1920s to underline the history of the brand. A statement and a modern classic at the same time.

Why is this work so special and what does it say about your agency? It is one of the rare projects where you are asked to design the total package (bottle shape, logo, graphic design, etc) and to receive all liberty and trust from the client in order to make something special and to build a brand from scratch. This new bottle will be the starting point of revitalising the old Boomsma brand. So it is an excellent example of how creativity can be used for commercial work.What makes the design Dutch? Realising a maximum of expression with a minimum of means is in our view a quality of Dutch Design, also in branding and packaging design. Especially in the hard liquor category there is a redundancy of graphical details and layers. In this rich world, Boomsma is no nonsense, an offspring of a typical Dutch uncomplicated character.What way would you describe Dutch packaging design?ood (Dutch) design is a visualized idea and is the opposite of “L’art pour l’art”. It is also simple and straightforward which gives it strength.