Featured image for Calm & Stormy Sells Sparkling And Distilled Water Filtered Through Volcanic Rock

Calm & Stormy Sells Sparkling And Distilled Water Filtered Through Volcanic Rock

by Casha Doemland on 04/03/2019 | 4 Minute Read

Inspired by all things water, Calm & Stormy delivers a variety of flavored waters that are both calm, still and peaceful or wild, stormy and explosive with flavors and carbonation. All of which are packaged in 100% recyclable aluminum cans and made with all-natural, real ingredients to help you achieve a healthier lifestyle while promoting a greener planet.

To craft the branding, Calm & Stormy took it upon themselves to do the design in-house with assistance from designer Abhiroop Boga and artist Printcess. Together, they created minimalistic packaging that not only tells the brand story but is attractive and appealing to the eye.

We spoke with Murray Raeburn, co-founder of Quest Beverages, the parent company of Calm & Stormy, to uncover the story behind the company and the journey throughout the designs.


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Walk us through the design process. How did you go from start to finish on this project? 

We started by casting a wide net with a few different territories that allow us to explore divergent execution styles. Our first territory was based on the elements of nature: earth, air and water, as a more literal representation of the product.

The second territory, Pele the Goddess of Volcanos drew inspiration from our unique volcanic water source, while the third territory centered around simplicity.

We received multiple concept designs based on each territory, which we shared with retail customers and end consumers. Although we found a lot of interest in the Elements and Pele territories, ultimately, they could be polarising.

However, the area of simplicity resonated well with our target market and was a clear favorite. We were also happy to have the elements of earth and water creatively included in the logo.

From there, we engaged a copywriter to bring to life our story of provenance and volcanic water source, and a finished artist added icons to reflect our environmental benefits of aluminum cans. They also ensured we had the optimal finish and layout for printing on aluminum.

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Tell us about the importance of sustainability and how it’s reflected throughout your designs? 

Sustainability is especially important to our consumers as it is to us;  it's why we chose aluminum cans as our core packaging material. Aluminum is the most sustainable beverage packaging format because it can be recycled indefinitely into new cans.

It has the highest recycled content and does not degrade in the recycling process, as plastic does. In fact, 75% of all aluminum ever produced is still in circulation today.  On the back of the can we use simple icons to help educate people on the environmental benefits of using cans. The graphics across the whole design are subtly reverse printed to reveal the natural aluminum beneath.

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How does the Australian spring water impact the flavor?

Our water is sourced from deep beneath a dormant volcano in the central highlands of Victoria. During a 30 year journey, rainwater filters through volcanic scoria rock, becoming infused with natural minerals. It certainly gives it a delicious and distinct taste but trying to describe it is tough. I’d say it has a slight citrus taste, but others have detected berry flavor notes among other things.  

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What makes Calm & Stormy unique?

Unlike most apple flavored drinks made from a blend of different apple varieties, our apple sparkling water uses only the Pink Lady variety. So our drink is 100% the real taste of Pink Lady Apples. Interestingly,Pink Lady is a brand. It is not a description or name of a tree or apple variety.

Raspberries are a fruit rumored to have been eaten since prehistoric times. Our raspberries get harvested from the fertile river flats of waters running through Tasmania's rugged western wilderness.

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Do you have a favorite flavor?

Tough one, I love them all of course. At the moment, I’m really into Blood Orange. I love how distinct the flavor is. There is no question it’s a blood orange variety rather than a generic orange flavor. It’s also pretty cool that our local grower has family roots back to Sicily and was inspired by blood orange growing traditions found in the volcanic soil of Mount Etna.