CC-Lab

CC-Lab worked with Marinate to create a book communicating Smirnoff’s history.

Smirnoff is the world’s largest selling premium vodka, still produced according to the traditions of P.A. Smirnoff, who invented the method of producing quality vodka that is still used today. His No. 21 vodka was a huge success in Russia and overseas. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, one of P.A.’s sons fled Russia and eventually established the Smirnoff company in the west. Vladimir Smirnoff’s company was eventually sold to an American, and at the end of the 1940s and early 50s, Smirnoff became a huge hit in the US, with the brand introducing many cocktails to a wide audience and effecting a massive change in drinking culture.

As part of an ongoing project, Smirnoff wanted an engaging format to communicate the brand’s history to its staff and customers.

CC-Lab devised an innovative print format using the concept of a Japanese bound book. The book relates the history of the brand on its regular pages, and opens out to display a timeline of the brand’s history on the reverse, which sets Smirnoff’s development in the context of the many other inventions which have occurred in its lifetime.

The booklet features a series of icons laser cut into the paper. The icons - designed by CC-Lab - help convey the authenticity of the brand’s origins and story.

The booklet has been widely distributed throughout the global marketing community of Smirnoff. The project was designed in house by James Chorley and Alex Torrance. CC-Lab worked with Shilen Patel of Marinate to create the project for Smirnoff.