Sierra Madre GmbH launched with a mission of bringing high-quality spirits to the fore through authentic and exclusive brands. But this Hagen-based company did so while promoting a culture of mindful enjoyment.
In 2023, Sierra Madre lived up to this reputation – launching Trasper’s Rum. A 15-year-old Panamanian rum aged in American Oak.
The story behind the brand is inspired by Juan Paz – later known as John Traspers – a Panamanian adventurer who sold rum to captains on the harbour of the great Panama Canal, while hearing their multitude of stories and playing a lot of poker. It wasn’t until his jackpot win, that he gained passage to America.
Once there, he creates the “Traspers Compass Room” where people can enjoy rum from Traspers’ homeland and play cards. The only condition for being there? A really good story.
Taking from the world-famous Traspers Hotel & Casino, the team joined forces with external agencies to design a bespoke flask bottle aesthetic – an ideal companion for journeys back in the day. Multiple iterations of designs were explored together, but one unwavering fundamental for the design was the inclusion of the iconic poker chip.
Considered a core asset of the bottle the ‘poker chip’ embellishment needed to look as close to the original chip found at the hotel as possible. And the existing paper solution just didn’t cut it.
Having shared samples of our signature Marque™, the team were struck by the superiority of its embossed tactility, colour, diversity of finish and overall amplified aesthetic. The capability was too good an opportunity to ignore.
Having received an overall design visual from their design agency – we were clear on design intent – so we got to work to take our Marque™ and deliver the Perfect Fit solution for the brand teams.
Through interactive and consultative meetings, we took the brief and produced 3D visualisations for the badge. These iterations explored enhancements in detailing, opportunities of varying thicknesses of Marque™ for greater depths of emboss and deboss, and exploring clever combinations of satin and gloss finish to fully capture the texture and light reflection off the real-life metal chip. We shared a selection of bespoke samples to the team to help finalise their choice.
The result? An intricately embossed and debossed, self-adhesive ‘poker chip’ Marque™ badge – flawlessly mirroring the cold to touch feel and look of a metal poker chip coin.
Find out more about Sierra Madre’s brand new Trasper’s Rum: www.sierra-madre.de
