Tuesday March 19th, 2024
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Stella Taps 31 Local Artists to Rebrand Its Bottle

31 of Egypt's top designers were surprised to receive a brief in a humongous beer brewing barrel...

Staff Writer

Stella is Egypt's oldest beer; it has been with us through good and hard times; it's a dependable friend in your times of need and a means to celebrate when you are in the mood for some fun. Keeping that in mind, Stella has concocted an original, out of the box, unorthodox way to rebrand their iconic label - which they do every five years - by opening it up to local artists. Instead of going the usual route of a standard giant agency designing a new label that will probably look exactly like the old label save a line here or there, Stella has tapped 31 local creative minds to compete and take on the task of transforming the way that notorious green bottle is viewed for the next half a decade.

"I think the way they went about it is really special; instead of briefing three or four designers and having to pick from their boring ideas, Stella found a way to turn this into a competition between the best of the pack, and since there is such a lucrative prize involved, each designer will be bringing forth his brightest ideas," says Tameem Younis, designer, all-around funnyman, and one of those selected to try and work his magic on Stella's label. And we're sure if he's lacking in the inspiration department, a few swigs of beer will get the creative juices flowing.

This move by the beer giants has essentially turned the game on its head. A devolution of sorts, a massive brand handing over the artistic reigns to the locals who happen to be their biggest fans basically and empowering them to re-imagine the future of Stella, the campaign is sure to produce some killer results. Plus, imagine the crazy mini power trip the winning artist will go on every time they see someone sipping on Stella from the bottle they designed.

To brief the 31 designers Stella shortlisted from a list of Egypt's best artistic minds, a humongous beer brewing barrel filled with gifts and a flash drive containing the instructions on the requirements for the competition was sent to each designer's office, causing quite the stir in the creative world.

FP7's Marwan Younis told us, "There was a huge commotion in the office when the packages arrived and the seven or eight of us who received them feel really special." We gotta commend Stella's idea to shake things up instead of doing it the old fashioned way and the designers who were tapped to participate completely agree. Mariam Ibrahim a designer at FP7 as well adds, "I was really impressed with the idea; re-branding Stella is a huge deal and they were successful in getting the most out of it. They chose a diverse group of artists who are all really good at branding, and put them head to a head for a chance to win the prize money - it's a really cool idea."

Fighting through the urge to drop our careers as writers and pick up designing for the chance that maybe Stella would consider us the next time they decide to change the label on their bottle - which happens every five years - we contacted Hassan Hassan, designer at RNDM Designs, to get some career advice and ask him about his thoughts regarding being one of the designers to be short listed for the coveted competition. "The brief was great in the sense that it gave requirements and guidelines but then really left it up to us. It was also fun in the sense of working with Stella in general," he continued "It's always flattering when any brand asks you to do anything, but Stella has so much history and is so Egyptian! I'm a bit overwhelmed and super excited and I'm definitely going to win!" Regarding our career move on the other hand, Hassan had this to say: "Well guys you have to understand that when my design wins, it will be so good and timeless I'm sure Stella wont change it for a 100 years. So my advice would be for you guys to stick to writing." Bold statement there Hassan.

After looking at some of the work these designers have done, we went back on the thought of dropping our careers, instead we decided to open a couple of Stellas and start writing boring biographies of our careers as writers.

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