While the rest of the cider world is leaning into rustic scripts and moody earth tones, this packaging features a hand-drawn bug illustration and a personal letter addressed directly to the drinker.
Oslo-based design studio OlssønBarbieri created the identity for Tessas Eplegård, a small-batch Norwegian cider producer from Hardanger, and the result feels like something you’d find tucked inside a friend’s art portfolio. Each bottle features a whimsical creature illustration inspired by Scandinavian folk art traditions. The typography is a delicious mix of serif for the product names and a looser, almost editorial sans-serif body text.
What really sets it apart is the decision to write the back label as a direct address, “Hei Eplesuger,” which translates to “Hey Apple Sucker,” turning the usually ignored back panel into a tiny piece that makes you feel like you and the brand share inside jokes.
As self-proclaimed happy amateurs, and with a background in biology, Tessa and Ander operate one of the few organic orchards in Hardanger, an area on the Norwegian west coast historically known for its beautiful nature and delicious fruit. While fruit growing has long traditions here, it is not as romantic as it sounds. Insects and animals damaging the crops, alongside the discovery of diseases and fungi in the 1930s, initiated “the pest war” that escalated with the first experiments with pesticides and herbicides. It did not take long until all fruit farms in Hardanger started to use chemical agents in their farming, a practice still ongoing today.
Our task was to create the brand identity and packaging for Tessa’s range of products, while exploring a more honest storytelling for a local farm, helping people to appreciate the difference between conventional farming practices and a new radical approach to fruit growing.
The concept ‘Friends of Tessa’s Orchard’ makes an effort to understand ourselves as part of the ecosystem and to bring us closer to those “others” that have been excluded from discourse, creating a new proximity that generates different types of relationships and care. While birds and other critters, might damage fruit crops, they also provide services that can benefit fruit growing. Animals and insects are important collaborators, and taking steps to conserve and enhance bird populations on the farm provides natural pest-control services while also benefitting biodiversity. Inspired by this eco-philosophical approach, we dedicated the naming, illustrations, and storytelling of each product to the birds, insects, and fungi considered “enemies of apple trees.” Each product playfully thanks each critter for their contribution to the life on the farm and places friendship at the centre, as a metaphor for a new way of thinking about ecology and our role in the ecosystem.
The idea sprouts from the connection we found between Norwegian poet and playwright Henrik Wergeland’s passion for gardening and fruit growing and the beginning of “Det Norske Hagelskap (Havedyrkningens venner)“ inspired by Wergelands “Kaal og Rot Selskabet” (cabbage and root society), founded the same decade as the farm. Wergeland wrote a ‘Protocol’ for the society, which we have modified for Tessa, describing 10 principles of ecological practice based on a peaceful coexistence. Each product is dedicated to a principle on the protocol, supported by an illustration of the critter to which we dedicate a rhyming poem and an abstract pattern. Each product is digitally numbered. The mark is inspired by the old logo of Det Norske Hageselskap, a carnation (= “the flower of love” in Greek), expanding a conversation with different views on farming practices within the local community. In the search for desirable futures and a world of coexistence, we invited several illustrators to the project, amplifying collaboration and beauty in diversity.
The production scale of Tessas products is small and needed to find a balance between craft, economy, and offer flexibility. While we created custom label die-cuts, the blind debossing cliche is common to all products, and we used the same size of seal for both 33cl and 75cl.
Note on the concept:
Language has the power to reduce our impact on the natural world. We believe storytelling can shift the way we understand and act in the world. The global north, with its philosophy that places humans on the top of the pyramid, needs rethinking. How do we convey ecocentrism when we are surrounded by anthropocentric and capitalistic narratives? Tessa’s narrative shows a humble and loving attitude towards our natural world, fostering interspecies mutualism.
Can design contribute to this debate and become an agent for change? Even though the impact of a small farm is little, we think the effort of contributing with alternative storytelling is important. Tessas is one of only two organic farms in Hardanger. While materials have all been considered, from FSC-certified paper, to glue-free and plastic free solutions, we believe the narrative on the products of an ecologic practice might be just as important to empower people to make good choices.
