Packaging Design & Branding — Subtle Tea Hard Iced Tea

Graphic DesignPackaging DesignLogo Design

29 Jan

Written By Matthew Broughton

Subtle Tea Can Label Graphic Design Packaging

Project Scope & Deliverables

Client: Subtle Tea
Project Scope: Craft Beverage Packaging Design, Custom Can Artwork & FMCG Brand Assets
Medium & Style: Vintage-Inspired Digital Illustration, Precision Vector Layout (Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop)
Client Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The Challenge: Standing Out in the Boutique Beverage Market

As one of the trusted and experienced packaging graphic designers in Melbourne, I brought an analogue craft focus to this branding framework. Subtle Tea, a Melbourne-based innovator in tea-based beverages, reached out to me to design a distinctive visual identity for their new line of Hard Iced Teas.

Targeting health-conscious millennials, the main challenge was to clearly communicate natural ingredients and absolute product transparency without losing any shelf-impact in a crowded craft beverage market. The brand needed a vintage aesthetic that felt authentically artisanal yet premium, requiring a visual system that could scale easily across multiple flavours while maintaining a rock-solid, cohesive brand presence.

The Solution: A Vintage-Inspired Illustrated Brand System

To hit that sweet spot, I developed a bespoke illustrated packaging system centred on a handcrafted, premium narrative. By mapping out flavour-specific colour palettes and combining them with vintage-inspired typography, I created a series of full-wrap can designs that immediately highlight the product’s quality.

Operating as an off-site art department, my work went right through from the initial character and pattern concepts to the technical print preparation, ensuring the final files were perfectly optimised for aluminium can production. I then extended that visual language into a broader library of brand assets. The final result is a unified, complete identity that celebrates the analogue soul of the natural ingredients through total digital precision.

See more subtletea.com.au

Credits:
Creative direction - Samantha Griggs
Product photo - Diego Morgan
Van Signage - CRG Designs