Brief Explanation

On January 26, 2011, the Australian State of Queensland was hit by devastating floods. Over 75% of the State was destroyed, more then 30 lives lost, and Brisbane, a city of more than 1 million people, was left broken and underwater. Queenslanders are known for their strong fighting spirit. The floods left this spirit all but broken. Our objective was to help rebuild the homes destroyed all over Queensland and lift up that spirit once again. Our strategy was to commemorate the resilient and defiant spirit of Queensland. The target audience was drawn from new and existing customers.

The Brief

The brief was to create a name and visual language that told the simple story that marks the day the floodwaters peaked.

How the final design was conceived

Having first conceived on the name Watermark, the design of the bottle and the complimentary applications followed suit. It’s traditional to mark the highest level of a flood to where the waters rose and date it on a pub wall. After floodwaters recede, a wall is left stained and a clear line is visible. This discolouration became the colour pallet and a gloss varnish was then used in printing to enhance the effect. The typography used to tell the story of Watermark is reminiscent of a water depth gauge. The idea was then to stylize each of these elements.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

When Watermark went on sale people queued up for over 96 hours to buy it (this is longer than people queue for ipads). The first run of Watermark sold out within a week and a second run went into production. All proceeds of Watermark went towards rebuilding Queensland. The product and events received a lot of attention in the press and in social media, and the entire nation rallied behind the cause, meaning Watermark played a huge role in lifting Queensland’s spirits and helping the State on the road to recovery.