Set behind a shadowy London backdrop, an 18^th century dandy basks at his reflection in a mirror, next to him a Ska dude in trendy sunglasses and a fedora is scoping out the scene.  Meanwhile an 80’s casual hooligan nonchalantly reaches in his coat pocket, next to him, an uppity 60’s girl puts makeup on her face.  In front, a character straight out of Oliver Twist sinisterly grins while a punk rock Sid Vicious lookalike eyes down the dandy.  To his right and looking stern as usual, a pinstriped gent walks away from the whole scene.

These eclectic characters have one thing in common, well two.  Each one represents an era in London’s fashion scene and they are all characters on Absolute Vodka’s new limited edition London bottle, designed by one of the UK’s elite graphic artists, Gorillaz’ Jamie Hewlett.

Set in pink and dark blue, the bottle is the newest of Absolute Vodkas limited edition bottles and, personally, the most stylish and creative.  Hewlett chose the seven characters because of their impact on London’s cultural scene and because they’ve influenced his art as well.

Hewlett gained major notoriety when he formed up with Damon Albarn to create the Gorillaz, a musical and visual project with an expansive story line and cutting edge-amazing- music.  The Gorillaz in the past have recruited musical heavyweights like MF Doom, The Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simonon and Little Dragon to name a few.  In 2010 the Gorillaz released their newest album Plastic Beach, Hewlett designed the adventurous music videos and illustrations for the album.

In Hewlett’s Absolute London design, he creates a London, which should be in a Gorillaz music video, funky yet sketchy and subtly realistic.

Absolute London will be on sale at Selfridges and Harvey Nichols on March 1, and then to retail stores on April 1.  The limited edition bottle is the latest, and first European city to be in Absolute Vodka’s “cities” collection.  Other “cities” bottles include Absolute Los Angeles and Absolute Vancouver.

Absolute Vodka also announced it is launching a digital campaign to go along with the bottle as well as a promotion on Facebook.  But that’s not all! If you’re dying for one of these, Absolute is holding a competition for fans to upload a picture on Instagram for a chance to win the limited edition bottle.

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Source: Marketing Magazine/Branding Magazine

Photo Source: Design Taxi