Hibiscus Beverage Brand Ruby Expands Its Psychedelic Packaging With Two New Flavors

While it's easy to feel ambivalence towards the overwhelming void of the beverage aisle, there's only one valid emotion: excitement. The options are plentiful, the flavors are imaginative, and the packaging often pushes creative limits. And because creativity is the driving force to more creativity, seeing how brands pivot to differentiate themselves through their design is when the true magic happens. 

Ruby, the hibiscus beverage brand that offers health benefits, such as the inclusion of over 1,000 antioxidants, fighting inflammation, and helping support liver and skin health, through its flavorful drinks and playful attitude, has just announced the addition of two new functional juicy sodas to its lineup: Sparkling Hibiscus Berry Cherry and Sparkling Hibiscus Fuji Apple. 

Ruby's imaginative can come from &Talmor, a boutique creative agency based out of Brooklyn and Tel Aviv, which has been Ruby's creative partner since the brand began. The illustration of the brand's emblem also features design by Robert Beatty, an internationally recognized artist known for his album cover designs for musicians like Tame Impala, My Morning Jacket, and The Weeknd. Each emblem is illuminated by the pre-existing work and mythology around "The Rubyverse," the animated world created by the brand to illustrate the potential of hibiscus, the brand's main ingredient. 

"We found that a great deal of "health" or "functional" beverages are very prescriptive in tone and overall look and can even border on preachy sometimes. For us, that was an easy approach to keep clear of, and we knew from the start we'd want to do the opposite," shares Morey Talmor,founder of &Talmor. "On the other end of the spectrum, there are the more 'trendy' looking beverages that mostly adhere to a similar world aesthetically, usually minimalist visuals or the whole gradient thing. That too was something that from the start we wanted to differ from."

Ruby's packaging is anything but rigid. The cans are highly playful, from the chunky, almost robotically psychedelic logo typeface to the immersive world Beatty created. What's more, it captures the pure delight consumers should feel as they crack open one of the beverages. 

"We landed on this notion of fun and delight as leading brand attributes early on. We wanted to avoid the prescriptive and strictly functional point of view and bring back some of what we loved about soft drinks before health concerns were on most consumers' radars or minds," mentions Angus Plunkett, designer at&Talmor. "I think our earliest insight during our brand discovery phase was that we wanted to bring back the delight of the everyday drink or something of that nature. From there, we intuitively spiraled down a rabbit hole, leading us to the silly and playful ways to bring this brand to life." 

And while the vibrant colors and inspired typography help drive the "fun and delightful" sentiment, Beatty's emblem is the critical design element that propels the sensation. "We love Robert's work and his panache for world-building, so we started with many references sent his way, both of his work and other, more vintage references of possible directions we wanted the can illustration to go in," states Plunkett. "We knew we wanted a landscape and an emblem to wink at old heritage beverage emblems (as seen on many old aperitif and vermouth labels). We also knew we wanted a creature or two, and finding the balance between all those asks was the brunt of the process, tweaking the balance and getting the landscape and emblem just right." 

Ruby is just one of a few new beverage brands that have hit the market and helped drive a feeling of genuine excitement within the beverage aisle. Its blending of far-out worlds and beautiful branding within the packaging design help enlighten consumers to understand that functional beverages can also be playfully imaginative and maybe even just a teensy bit better for you.