2015 Galleries

Galleries // 2015 Spark:Communication // SAKE: The History, Personal Stories and Craft of Japan’s Artisanal Breweries

SAKE: The History, Personal Stories and Craft of Japan’s Artisanal Breweries

Winner - Gold

Competition: Spark:Communication
Designer: Edroos Alsagoff - Art Director
Design Type: Print publication
Company / Organization / School: Gatehouse Publishing
Website: http://gatehousepublishing.com
Team Members: Joshua Rallen Lim - Assistant Designer and Photographer Jalean Wong - Director Helen Augello Miles - Senior Editor Bethany Larson - Assistant Editor

The design concept for SAKE was to create a premium product that captured the natural elements and handcrafted processes of brewing sake, with beautiful photography. Inspired by Japanese minimalism and the landscape of Japan, the treatment, finish and design for both the book and box were kept simple and organic. For the box, we chose a neutral color with a rustic treatment, calling to mind the material of gunny sacks, used by breweries to store rice. The character jiǔ, which means “alcohol,” is written in Japanese shodo and is prominently hot-stamped in black, creating a contrast of texture and color. We picked a cool blue tone inspired by both winter, when the Japanese brewing season begins, and water, one of the major components of nihonshu, for the book cover. The English title maintains the shodo-style and is also hot-stamped in black. The book’s subtitle appears in both English and kanji, reminding the reader of the jiǔ character used on the cover of the box. Wood-free paper is used inside the book, creating the right tones for the photographs. The interior images and understated layouts were carefully curated to allow the photographs to take center stage without overwhelming the body copy.