After years of tolerating average rums that never quite hit the spot, Mike Brown and Andrew Antunovich decided to create the perfect drop themselves. Fast forward 18 months and the duo had crafted the very first Helmsman, one of the most appetising spiced Caribbean rums to hit the New Zealand market.

Following the overwhelming success of their spiced rum, the gentlemen behind the award-winning label decided to rebrand Helmsman and launch a new series of rums. They sought inspiration from the designs, materials and aesthetics of other premium spirits labels. It was during this discovery that they encountered an American gin label design that appealed to their senses. They engaged We Are Society Creative Director, Peter Radich, to incorporate some of these design elements into Helmsman’s new look.

The new Helmsman labels are something special; eye catching on the shelf and texturally very appealing in the hand. The new branding has helped to reposition Helmsman as a premium player in the rum sector and we are excited to see the launch of their full range in the coming months.  

Our team of label experts met with Helmsman and We Are Society where we presented our premium material portfolio, paying particular attention to textured materials that would provide the desired tactile feel. We discussed the features of the label, including the desire to use foil and embossing, and noted that additional moisture protection was not required for this particular project.

We recommended using our Clarence material due to its superior bright white textured felt finish. This self-adhesive paper stock is FSC^® chain of custody certified, which means that the paper used comes from responsibly managed forests. In 2020 Hally Labels celebrates seven years of FSC chain of custody certification and the supply of billions of labels each year on certified materials. Clarence contains 30% post-consumer waste, which refers to the paper recycled after end consumer use. This substrate is part of our extensive environmental material portfolio.

The new Helmsman rum series was to feature four flavours including the current Spiced Rum plus three new varieties: White Rum, Gold Rum and Black Rum. Each label would be a different colour with the Spiced Rum, and White Rum varieties to be the first two releases.

To give further texture to the felt material, we embossed the Spiced Rum label using our digital capability. This raised specific aspects of the design and introduced a sensory element to the branding. We then applied a blue hot foil, resulting in a visually striking outcome on the white background. Hot foil provides a premium, luxurious effect that is used to communicate quality. This embellishment can achieve finer and higher quality detail than cold foil and is available in a wider range of colours and effects including holographic foils.

For the White Rum label we selected a high build screen on the dark blue base background to ensure it had enough contrast whilst still achieving a tactile effect. High build application utilises a fine silk screen mesh through which the ink or varnish is forced to build the height of the product on the surface of the label, creating an elevated, and usually glossy, effect.

The final two rums in the series will be the Gold and Black Rums. From our learnings, we will apply embossing to the Gold Rum’s white background and a high build to the Black Rum’s black background when production begins later in the year.