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Liquid Death packaging

Images from the packaging case study by Alex Lang · Campaign images © Liquid Death, from liquiddeath.com

Liquid Death

blackletter tallboys with a gold death band

Liquid Death sells water, tea and sparkling flavours in cans styled like a metal band's tour merchandise. Every can runs the same centred stack: a towering two-line textura blackletter wordmark with the second word far larger, a violent pun flavour name in bold Roman capitals, a condensed descriptor between short gold rules, a dense single-ink illustration of a melting skull with dripping strands, and a gold (#d9ad3c) base band with the tracked slogan 'Murder Your Thirst'. Flavours change only the can colour and its ink (navy on white for still water, gold over navy for the tea lemonade, gold on purple, plum or cobalt), and multipack cartons default to matte black (#1c1a1b) or a flat flavour colour with the wordmark recoloured and gold claim roundels in the corner.

  • Water
  • Soft drinks
  • Dark pack
  • Bold typographic
  • Colour-coded range
  • Heritage label

Color Palette

Approximate colours interpreted from photography. These are screen references, not official brand colours or print specifications.

Pack body

  • Coffin Black

    #1c1a1b

    Multipack carton ground and blacked-out can bodies such as the citrus flavour

  • Tombstone White

    #f2f1ec

    Still mountain water can body behind navy type and gold illustration

Ink

  • Grave Navy

    #1b2a5a

    Wordmark on the white can and full body of the cola and tea-lemonade cans

Accent

  • Reliquary Gold

    #d9ad3c

    Illustration ink, rules, can ends and the slogan base band on every pack; upper half of split cans

Range coding

  • Severed Green

    #2f9a45

    Lime can body and its green wordmark on the black carton

  • Peach Blood

    #b8171a

    Lower half of the gold-over-red peach tea can and its wordmark

  • Doctor Purple

    #4b2458

    Full purple can under gold blackletter and gold skull

  • Cider Plum

    #7a2140

    Limited-edition cider can and its wordmark on the black carton

  • Chainsaw Orange

    #e8922a

    Wordmark on the black mango carton and the mango can

  • Buzzsaw Blue

    #2f8fd4

    Flat blue 12-pack carton of the blueberry tea with white blackletter

Typography

Suggested visual alternatives, not confirmed brand typefaces. Any scale below is an illustrative estimate.

The two-word blackletter wordmark fills the top third to half of the can, with the first word small and the second huge. A bold Roman flavour pun follows in capitals, then a condensed descriptor between two short gold rules, then the illustration, the volume on a ruled line and the slogan tracked out inside the gold base band.

Type scale

Estimated cap size as a share of the panel · Printed front of the 19.2 oz tallboy can, about 160 mm from shoulder to base

  • wordmark-main

    14% · Bold · Display

    Grave

  • wordmark-first

    7% · Bold · Display

    Holy

  • flavour-pun

    3.2% · Bold · Headline

    LIME TO DIE

  • descriptor

    1.6% · Medium · Label

    FLAVORED SPARKLING WATER

  • carton-roundel

    1.5% · Medium · Label

    0g SUGAR

  • slogan

    1.2% · SemiBold · Body

    QUENCH YOUR DOOM

Fonts

  • Display

    UnifrakturCook

    Looks like
    Old English Text MT, Cloister Black
    Type
    Heavy textura blackletter
    Weight
    Bold
    Case
    Title case
    Tracking
    Tight
    Fallback
    Old English Text MT, serif

    The wordmark only, stacked on two lines with the second word about twice the size of the first, sometimes with a thin offset outline in a second colour.

  • Headline

    Cinzel

    Looks like
    Trajan Bold, Clarendon Bold Wide
    Type
    Bold Roman inscriptional capitals
    Weight
    Bold, Black
    Case
    Uppercase
    Tracking
    Slightly wide, about +3%
    Fallback
    Trajan Pro, Times New Roman Bold, serif

    Pun flavour names ('DOCTOR DEATH', 'KILLER COLA') directly under the wordmark, in the wordmark colour or white on black cartons.

  • Label

    Oswald

    Looks like
    Trade Gothic Bold Condensed
    Type
    Condensed grotesque
    Weight
    Medium
    Case
    Uppercase
    Tracking
    Wide, about +6%
    Fallback
    Arial Narrow, sans-serif

    Format line between two short gold rules ('FLAVORED SPARKLING WATER') and the claim figures in carton roundels.

  • Body

    Montserrat

    Looks like
    Gotham Medium, Futura Medium
    Type
    Geometric sans, widely tracked
    Weight
    Medium, SemiBold
    Case
    Uppercase
    Tracking
    Very wide, about +25%
    Fallback
    Futura, Arial, sans-serif

    The slogan letterspaced across the gold base band, the volume line above it and back-of-can copy.

Structure & Proportions

Proportions

PurposeValuePreview
Wordmark heightAbout 30% of the printed can height, top of the stack
Wordmark widthAbout 85% of the visible can face
Illustration areaAbout 35% of can height, lower half
Base bandAbout 5% of can height, very bottom
Split-can boundaryOn split cans the colour change sits about 40% down from the top
Inks per can faceTwo plus gold: body colour, one ink, gold for rules and band—
DensityDense vertical stack, no empty zones; illustration fills what type leaves—

Shapes

ElementValuePreview
TallboyTall slim 19.2 oz cylinder
Base bandSolid gold band across the very bottom
Claim roundelGold-outlined circle with a figure inside, on carton fronts
Skull illustrationMelting skull with long dripping strands
Descriptor rulesTwo short gold rules flanking the format line

Finishes

  • Gloss can print

    Can bodies · gloss

  • Metallic gold

    Rules, illustration ink, base band and can ends · metallic

  • Matte black board

    Multipack cartons · matte

Formats and materials

Formats12 oz can, 19.2 oz tallboy can, 6-pack carton, 12-pack carton
MaterialsAluminium, Printed paperboard
ClosuresStandard ring-pull can ends, gold-toned on tallboys and several flavours
DecorationFull-wrap direct can print, Single-ink illustration, Gold ruled base band, Gold claim roundels, Split two-colour can body

Front Panel

Schematic reading order. The diagram’s zone heights do not represent measured artwork proportions.

A centred vertical stack printed over the full can wrap: wordmark, flavour name, ruled descriptor, illustration, then a separate gold base band; cartons repeat it horizontally with a can render on the right.

ZoneContent
TopStacked blackletter wordmark at near full width; small claim line on the shoulder
Upper middlePun flavour name in bold Roman capitals, descriptor between gold rules
MiddleDense single-ink illustration of a melting skull with eyes and dripping strands
BottomRuled volume line and a solid gold band with the tracked slogan

Range System

One body colour and one ink colour per flavour, with the wordmark, stack order, illustration and gold base band fixed; some flavours split the can into two bands of colour. Cartons default to matte black with the wordmark recoloured to the flavour.

  • Mountain water = white can + navy wordmark + gold skull, night-forest carton
  • Dead Billionaire tea lemonade = gold top, navy bottom, white skull
  • Rest In Peach = gold top, red bottom
  • Severed Lime = green can, black carton + green wordmark
  • Doctor Death = purple can + gold ink
  • Killer Cola = cobalt-navy can + gold ink
  • Psycho Cider = plum can, 'Limited Edition' script

Back of Pack & Shelf

The wrap continues round the back with the same colours: a deadpan joke paragraph about killing thirst and plastic, the nutrition facts in the ink colour, ingredients, recycling and deposit marks, barcode and the slogan band continuing all the way round.

  • Deadpan joke copy in tracked capitals
  • US nutrition facts in the can ink, no white box
  • Ingredient list and source of the water
  • Infinitely-recyclable aluminium note and deposit marks
  • UPC barcode and the gold slogan band running 360°

On shelf

In the chiller the tallboys read as a row of blackletter-topped columns ending in the same gold band, so the brand blocks by the repeated gold base line and wordmark shape across very different can colours.

Imagery

A dense hand-drawn psychedelic illustration of a melting skull with hollow eyes and long dripping hair-like strands, always in one flat ink; the still-water carton adds a dark moonlit pine-forest photograph behind the wordmark.

Guidelines

Do

  • Stack the blackletter wordmark on two lines with the second word about twice the first, filling the top 30% of the can.
  • Print each can in one body colour plus one ink, reserving Reliquary Gold (#d9ad3c) for rules, ends and the base band.
  • Name every flavour with a violent pun in bold Roman capitals directly under the wordmark.
  • Fill the lower half with one dense single-ink melting-skull illustration.
  • Close every can and carton with a solid gold band carrying a short tracked slogan.
  • Default multipack cartons to matte black (#1c1a1b) with the wordmark in the flavour colour and gold claim roundels top right.
  • Split tea cans into a gold upper part and a coloured lower part.

Don't

  • Don't use wellness cues such as leaves, droplets, fruit photos or soft gradients.
  • Don't set the wordmark in a sans-serif or on a single line.
  • Don't use more than two ink colours on a can face besides gold.
  • Don't move the slogan band from the very bottom.
  • Don't scatter claims across the can; keep them to one shoulder line or carton roundels.
  • Don't draw the skull in full colour; it is always one flat ink.

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