The archive · Brand & Identity · Marketing decision · 2023–2024
Air Up answers a new way to taste with a big, playful brand voice
air up's bottle makes plain water taste through scent — so its rebrand gives the new category a big, playful voice instead of sterile water-brand minimalism.
Air Up
What it had to solve
An air up bottle delivers flavour through scent while the drink itself is plain water — no additives, no sugar. Because the product cannot be explained by an ingredient list, the brief asked how to define an entirely new way to taste.
How it works
air up sells a bottle that makes plain water taste flavoured: the drinker's brain perceives flavour through scent while the liquid itself stays free of additives and sugar. That is an entirely new way to taste, and the category had no ready-made language for it.
Rather than explain the mechanism, the rebrand answered the question with personality. Air Up built a playful, attention-grabbing brand anchored in one big voice — expressive headlines, bright colours, mixed-case typography and whimsical art direction.
The point of the voice was contrast. Where the water category had turned sterile, air up behaved like the taste it promises, so the writing itself became the demonstration that this drink is different. The work is preserved in the D&AD Awards archive under Writing for Design.
Why it lands
- The product's difference is sensory — flavour perceived through scent — so only a voice that feels different can communicate it.
- Sterile, minimalist water branding would have made a playful novelty look like every other bottle on the shelf.
- Expressive headlines and whimsical art let people 'taste' the brand's character before their first sip.
- One consistent big voice across the business makes the technology feel human instead of lab-made.
What it did
The brand voice itself became the explanation — it made the novelty feel like fun rather than technology, a deliberate antidote to the sterile look of the water category. The work is preserved in the D&AD Awards archive under Writing for Design.
What you can take
When a product creates a new category, the voice must teach how it feels: playful, expressive branding carries a sensory novelty that feature lists cannot explain.
Since then
The voice system is preserved in the D&AD Awards archive under Writing for Design, where Air Up is credited as both brand and client. What survived is the positioning itself: a scent-based drink defined not by its mechanism but by a personality loud enough to stand out in a category of minimal, functional bottles.
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