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DesignNewswire · COMO, Italy ·

Tiago Russo and Katia Martins Is Honored with the Silver A' Design Award for Shay Vsop Luxury Cognac in Packaging Design

Tiago Russo and Katia Martins honored for packaging design by the international grand jury of the 2022 - 2023 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 20, 2023 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Shay Vsop Luxury Cognac by Tiago Russo and Katia Martins, designed for Le Portier, has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Packaging Design category. The recognition forms part of the 2022 - 2023 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

What the Silver A' Design Award Means

The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.

Regarding Shay Vsop Luxury Cognac

Crafted with Shannon Sharpe's input and inspired by Mary Porter's heritage, Shay Vsop enters the market as a product that is bold yet elegant, disruptive, a true statement piece for cognac lovers and connoisseurs. The strong, dark shapes contrast with delicate light detailing, creating a product full of contrast and raising all attentions towards the long vessel, topped by a black obsidian closure and silver detailing, where a collectible item is placed: with each batch, a different letter of the word Le Portier is foiled onto the closure, allowing collectors to procure all different batches.

About Tiago Russo and Katia Martins

Tiago Russo is the Chief Design Officer at The Craft Irish Whiskey Co., a premium & luxury Irish spirits brand that aims to elevate and return to Ireland its former glory and reputation as home of the best whiskies in the world. Building an empire with a global mind-set and Irish heart. Over the last decade Russo has designed for some of the most respectable brands in the world. His impressive portfolio spans the luxury lifestyle domain from spirits to cosmetics, automotive to timepieces including: The Macallan, Dewar’s, The Dalmore, Craigellachie, Bacardi, Louis Vuitton, Patek Philippe, Coty Inc. and McLaren, to name a few.

Award Record

With this recognition, Tiago Russo and Katia Martins is a winner of 6 A' Design Awards. The awards span the editions from 2020 - 2021 to 2022 - 2023 of the A' Design Award & Competition.

About the A' Packaging Design Award

The A' Packaging Design Award is an international packaging competition that recognizes outstanding packaging designs by talented packaging designers worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to packaging designers, graphic designers, branding agencies and product manufacturers from all countries. Entries typically include bottles, boxes, cans, pouches, tubes and cartons. Awarded packaging designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/packaging

About A' Design Award & Competition

A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project
Shay Vsop Luxury Cognac
Function
Luxury Cognac
Category
Packaging Design
Discipline
Communication Design
Industry
Packaging & Retail, Branding & Advertising and Manufacturing
Colors
Black, Maroon, Dark Slate Gray and Dim Gray
Images
5
Client
Le Portier

The Recognition

Laureate
Tiago Russo and Katia Martins
Country
Portugal
Recognition
Silver A' Design Award
Edition
2022 - 2023
Design ID
#148923

Credits

Team
Tiago Russo and Katia Martins
Image Credits
Le Portier

Design Details

Unique Properties
Based on the iconic bell-shaped cognac bottles, the Shay VSOP vessel has a large bulb with a stepped ice that elevates the vessel and the liquid into higher, floating aesthetics, leading to a long, narrow neck, maximising the control of the cognac flow. The box, on the other hand, has a geometric approach, opposed to the organic flow of the bottle. The black wooden box adopts and adapts the same minimalist approach from the bottle, and has small silver accents on top of the black stained wood.
Inspiration
Shay is the first product for the new Cognac brand Le Portier, and gathers a combination of the classic cognac heritage with a contemporary approach, culminating in a beautiful bespoke bottle with black obsidian and a black tinted luxurious box, whilst a sense of exclusiveness and luxury is inherent to the bottle, where minimalist details allow the shaping of the glass to take the centre stage, maximising the rich shades of the cognac to shine through.
Research
Shay VSOP is a product of differentiation, of perfectionism and heritage. The early development stages were entirely focused on the history of Shannon Sharpe and Mary Porter, whilst redirecting such important historical connotation towards a product that can become an outstanding presence on the American market. Colours, materials and the concept of a cognac bottle had to be re-thought in order to develop a product truly disruptive.
Challenge
In a market densely populated by ranges of cognac products, the main challenge in the design and development of Shay VSOP was to achieve a product that, as it represents a new brand and its inaugural release, could enter the market associating a quality product with a differentiating design that highlights and evolves the concept of cognac. Marking a statement approach, Shay VSOP merges a large vessel with fine detailing, embedded into a luxurious box that elevates the cognac inside.
Realization and Technology
Shay VSOP is all about the contrasts that elevate the cognac's shades and presence. The organic bottle has minor silver metallic detailing, contrasting with the dark obsidian, in the same way the black box exterior is inverted by a floating off-white suede inside, wrapping the bottle and elevating it as a light backdrop where all the colours burst as light is received inside the opening of the luxurious box.
Operation and Interaction
Open the box through the silver side clasp, whilst contemplating the dark wood tones and silver detailing. Inside, the dark tones are contrasted by a bright, off white fabric cladding, wrapping the whole interior of the Shay VSOP box. On the left side, educational information is printed on the fabric, and on the right, a vacuum-formed inlay houses the bottle, gently highlighting its contours, revealing the low bulb vessel and the brightness of the cognac tones inside.
Project Duration and Location
Being a collaboration between the Craft Distilling Group and former-NFL superstar Shannon Sharpe, Shay VSOP was created with the aim to take the American market by storm, and rapidly becoming one of the most exclusive and sought-after cognacs in the US. Its promotion, associated with the Shannon Sharpe and all of the history of Mary Porter, have granted a notorious relevance to this product, making it steadily expand and become available in a total of 47 different states in the last year alone.
Specifications
The vessel's top, finished with a knurled neck and black embossed print, sets a silver accent just below the black obsidian closure, with a bespoke illustration at the very top. Inside, a light grey suede clads the deep foam socket that houses the bottle, with the exact same material finishing the inside of the door, where visual elements are printed in a dark tone, contrasting with the light fabric that provides a neutral luxurious hint to the dark box.
Keywords
Cognac, luxury, design, craftsmanship, Shannon, experience, immersion, packaging, product, exclusive

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