Do you know Kashiwa Sato? He’s my compatriot and one of the top Japanese Creative Director/Art Director Japan has ever produced. Many consider him to be the greatest living Japanese designer.

The picture above is Gokunama (low-malt beer) Sato has created its package design.

Low-malt beer is considered lower quality and cheaper replacement for beer, but Sato tried to change the mindset with his design approach. He wanted low-malt beer to establish a unique position and get out of beer’s shadow.

He compares beer to clothes, saying you cannot judge who is poorer when seeing one wearing a suit and the other wearing jeans. It’s just a difference in their style, preference. Sato wanted Gokunama to establish a similar identity jeans have, so people will “choose” Gokunama.

What he came up with is simple but very effective solution, and yes, it does look like Gokunama has gained its own style.

Good design changes people’s mindset.

Reference (in Japanese)

http://www.nhk.or.jp/professional/backnumber/060131/index.html