How FCKLCK gave alcohol-free brand SHWUNG a full wine disguise

The Brand Identity: When Simon Martens and Milan van Nuffel approached Antwerp and Austin-based FCKLCK Studio to design new labels for their alcohol-free wine brand SHWUNG, the brief already had a constraint baked in: a forced name change from SOBR. Rather than treat the work as packaging, the studio took on the harder question underneath it all. How do you sell something that isn’t wine like it’s wine? The answer sits on every bottle. Spumante becomes [spuh-man-tay]. Vermouth Rosso becomes [vehr-mut ros-soh]. Orange becomes [or-anj].

Each product is named the way its wine-style equivalent sounds when spoken aloud in its language of origin, written inside square brackets the same way a dictionary shows pronunciation. The names are familiar enough to register as wine and altered enough to make clear they are not. This small yet significant tension flows throughout the entire identity. Getting there meant going deep into the category first. James Krüger, Founder & Creative Director at FCKLCK, grew up in Stellenbosch, the centre of South African wine country, which gave him a long view of the conventions worth keeping and the ones worth defying.

The team studied how different regions handle their packaging, from classic traditionalists to new-world upstarts, and the decision was made early and shared with the client straight away. “To position a non-alcoholic botanical drink as a wine replacement and for it to work, we needed to go full wine nerd,” Krüger explains. “Bottle choices, label hierarchy, the pompous ignorance you find on serious wine packaging.

We had to go so deep into the world of wine that the product was instantly at home there.” With that in mind, each variant uses the bottle that matches the wine style it stands in for, so the sparkling sits in a sparkling bottle and the rosé in a rosé bottle, and so on. No conventions broken there. The label itself is eye-stopping in shape and conformist in everything else, making it distinct enough to stand out on shelf without over-explaining its point of difference.

The hierarchy follows wine to the letter: grape and variety take centre stage, with style, flavour notes and product type stepping down beneath in smaller type, reading as one continuous description from the phonetic name down to what the drink actually is. The closeness to wine answered a problem felt by SHWUNG’s founders. The brand operates in the wine proxy category, where most alternatives are built around what the drinker is giving up. “I think the non-alcoholic category started as a category of compromise,” Martens tells us. “SHWUNG isn’t about drinking less. It’s about enjoying more.

More flavour, more presence, more connection, more tomorrow.” The packaging needed to make that case in seconds on a shelf, against products people reach for only because they can’t have the real thing. The phonetic system actually arrived late in the process, and from an unlikely place. Krüger knew he wanted an immediate wine association without borrowing real wine names, which were too confusing and too close. The idea stuck while he was doomscrolling on Instagram and landed on a carousel of food misspellings. Tumor Rick. Nugmet. Grilled Chinken. Coocie. Too goofy and too childish for wine, but it was the start of something.

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This article highlights a significant branding strategy for a growing market segment, showcasing innovative packaging and identity that could influence brand strategy professionals in the alcohol-free beverage industry.