Dragon Well Tea
The hand behind the leaf.
Overview
Packaging and branding for Dragon Well, known in China as Longjing tea. The vision was to capture the richness of its hand-picked leaves and bring that craft into the box: the hand behind the leaf.
Brief and challenge
Premium tea packaging often reaches for gold foil and stock oriental ornament. We wanted the mark of a human hand on every surface, so the boxes would feel drawn rather than printed from a template, and the craft of picking each leaf would carry through to the shelf.
Role and deliverables
We created the brand mark, the box and tin packaging, an illustration system and an animated packaging visual.
- Brand mark
- Box & tin packaging
- Illustration system
- Animated packaging visual
Process
Everything began with the brush. Dragons and calligraphic marks reference the character of Longjing tea, drawn in loose, dry strokes and laid over large faded characters. Each blend then got its own tall box, a black Meijiawu box with a pouring teapot in sand-coloured line, a cobalt box with a white creature and a violet box with folded gold forms, each titled in vertical red Chinese characters with a small English subtitle running alongside.
Outcome
Black, violet and cobalt connect the boxes, tins and supporting imagery, with the brush line as the constant across them. The illustration system can take on new blends by adding a colour and a drawing, and the animated visual carries the same strokes into motion.
