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made from rice, sake is an alcoholic beverage peculiar
to japan. german designer konstantin grcic developed
the new ‘sake 8’ label for the japanese sake producer
‘hachitsuru’ in hachinohe.
hachitsuru means ‘eight cranes’ in japanese.
hachitsuru was founded in the edo-period in 1786.
the original company logo of hachitsuru was created
in 1919 by the famouse japanese painter taikan yokoyama.
for the first time in the long history of the company
a designer without japanese origins has taken part in the
process of bottle design development.

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there are many types of sake.
in short, all sake can be divided into two groups:
that with added alcohol, and that made with rice only.
most mass produced sake made today has pure distilled
alcohol added to it. in very cheap sake, there is quite a
lot of added alcohol.
the type of sake which is contained in the ‘sake 8’ bottles
is ’yamahai-junmai’ - hachitsuru’s artisans brew ‘sake 8’
in an authentic sake-making process using only 100% rice.
when sake is not labeled ‘junmai’, and this includes almost all
cheap sake on the market, it has had alcohol added to it.
‘junmai’ sake has been made in japan for over 2,000 years.
grcic wanted to visualize this traditional preparation method
in the new label.

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the munich-based designer konstantin grcic played with
two circle elements and formed the number ‘8’ -
in japanese culture the ‘8’ is a metaphor for the flow of tradition,
without a beginning or an end.
at first grcic thought of a glass relief logo, which could be
directly impressed into the glass bottles during the forming
process. all additional information he wanted to transfer
on the wrapping paper.
the sake 8 label for hachitsuru received the aomori industrial
design prize in japan and the german IF communication design
award in 2006.

the exhibition documents grcic's logo design process
and combines examples of grcic's furniture with ancient tools for
sake production, traditional and modern sake drinking wares
and more than 100 photographs of the sake production.
the exhibition was curated by hanae komachi, a japanese design
journalist in hanover, she was born in hachinohe and her
grandfather was the master-brewer of hachitsuru-sake.
the exhibition was first shown in the hachitsuru brewery,
in japan in october 2005.

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more info
http://www.konstantin-grcic.com
http://www1.odn.ne.jp/hachituru/sake8.htm
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/grcic.html