BJ Hooker’s, a Houston, TX-based vodka distillery with roots tracing back to Prohibition, has collaborated with Berlin Packaging and its Studio One Eleven on a redesigned bottle. The team wanted a strong bottle design, featuring 1950’s bar advertising.

To accomplish this, Berlin Packaging used ACL (Applied Ceramic Labeling), a specialized technique in which ceramic inks are fused to the bottle in a conveyor oven. According to the company, the process outperforms screen printing by delivering excellent registration quality, even in the 360-degree application used for BJ Hooker’s. The finished bottle has an enhanced 3D effect, courtesy of the four-color ACL process.

“Studio One Eleven recommended Applied Ceramic Labeling for the bottle as an inherently higher quality solution for the intricate retro artwork involved,” explains Nick Wilkins, senior packaging consultant at Berlin Packaging. “It provides dramatically better overall quality, perfect registration, and 360-degree bottle coverage. ACL has reinforced the quality associated with the BJ Hooker brand.

“ACL is uniquely suited to glass containers,” he adds. “Ceramic inks contain glass, which allows the ink to be fused to the bottle when subjected to heat in a conveyor oven. ACL is extremely durable and resistant to chemicals, chipping and flaking.”

BJ Hooker’s has decided to utilize the product design on all five of its packaging sizes, as well as a new line of flavored vodkas. The original goal was to highlight BJ Hooker’s fun and playful personality by using retro cocktail ads. At the same time, the company wanted to retain the qualities of vodka’s handmade, premium quality.

“The customer–BJ Hookers–had previously used art from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s as a design motif and signature for the brand. Berlin’s solution embraced this brand equity by pulling additional artwork that reinforced the existing look and feel for the packaging,” says Wilkins. “BJ Hookers wanted a bottle with personality; moreover it wanted an image that ran counter to the Grey Goose’s of the world. The distiller wanted something distinctly American, which is why Texas imagery was also incorporated into the bottle.”

Berlin Packaging’s Studio One Eleven designed a custom glass container with the word “Cheers” and a silhouette of the state of Texas prominently embossed on the raised shoulder. In addition, another Texas logo is deeply debossed atop the bottle’s backside.

“While expressing a brand character that is, in many ways, the exact opposite of stuffier brands that emphasize their urbanity and foreign heritage, BJ Hookers exudes product quality,” says Wilkins. “It uses 100% American wheat for a distinctively American flavor. The new bottle is playful, relaxed and all about Texas—yet it still communicates a premium product.”

According to Wilkins, the product has received positive feedback since hitting the shelves in early 2016. “The new packaging hit the market in February, and already the company is extending its product line with different sizes and new flavors–pineapple is the first,” he adds. “All will share the look and feel of Berlin’s original design.”