Most famous Croatian gin releases new limited edition: Old Pilot’s presents the “Art Edition” in collaboration with the artist Appear Offline

(Photo credit: Nikola Matić)

World award-winning Croatian gin “Old Pilot’s” officially celebrates moving into the New Year with a new edition of its Art Edition project. After collaborating with Lunar and Marina Mesar OKO, Old Pilot’s joined forces with visual artist and designer Appear Offline.

The Art Edition project has turned out to be a very successful story that has collectible potential for all admirers of this famous gin, which in 2019 was declared the best London Dry Gin in the world at the prestigious IWSC competition.

Over the past two years, OKO and Lunar have given their distinctive artistic stamp to this special edition, and the whole story developed from the pure curiosity of the founder of the Old Pilot’s brand and the search for something new.

(Photo credit: Nikola Matić)

“Old Pilot’s pays a lot of attention to the design of our products. Cooperation with artists was born out of curiosity and the need to find out how the artistic eye sees our products. We wanted to get new ideas, a new perspective and thus find out where the limits of an apparently ordinary product – a bottle of drink – are.

In addition, we wanted to create additional value for our products through a limited, collector’s series that cannot be reproduced. To make the series recognisable and interesting every year, we designed a collaboration with Croatian artists through a limited number of bottles and a label that will not be repeated.

(Photo credit: Nikola Matić)

Every year one artist and one design. Always a different colour, background, story. We do not influence the design or offer guidance. The artist himself chooses the colours, inspiration and design. We even allowed our airplane, which is the recognisable logo of our brand, to be removed from the front of the label,” – said the founders of the Old Pilot’s brand, Hrvoje Bušić and Tomislav Anadolac.

(Photo credit: Nikola Matić)

Appear Offline says that he had freedom when designing the new Art Edition, which made the creation process much easier.

“I had complete freedom in creating this edition and a free hand to design the visual concept of the entire story. My style is primarily based on different reinterpretations of typography and letters. That’s why I decided to use the acronyms of both brands – AO/OP and the year of edition as the basis of the whole concept and the starting point for further illustrative development. The idea was to create a visually harmonious composition, at first glance abstract, but legible enough to capture the viewer’s attention and invite him to decipher what it represents.

(Photo credit: Nikola Matić)

The creation process itself was extremely efficient. After we agreed on the stylistic parameters such as colours and technical details, I created two visual concepts. Hrvoje and Tomislav unanimously decided on the one you see, and after that came the additional elaboration of all the details and connecting the elements into the final product,” – said the artist.

(Photo credit: Nikola Matić)

(Photo credit: Nikola Matić)

Old Pilot’s Art Edition is produced in a limited edition of only 500 bottles, and 150 bottles are available in gift packages containing; a bottle of Old Pilot’s London Dry Gin with a label designed by Appear Offline, two crystal glasses with the Old Pilot’s brand logo, a jigger (measuring measure for alcohol), a numbered A5 print signed by the artist and a brochure where you will find recipes for famous cocktails such as and the story of the origin of the Old Pilot’s brand.

(Photo credit: Nikola Matić)

Old Pilot’s Art Edition is available on the official Old Pilot’s webshop.

About the artist Appear Offline:

Appear Offline is a designer and visual artist who bases his expression on combining typography with experimental elements characteristic of illustration and graffiti writing. Before creating the AO brand, the author built a professional design career for more than 10 years by working with different clients, agencies and global brands. He currently collaborates with creatives and brands with similar creative world-views, especially in the field of design, urban culture, fashion and music.

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