Q: What do you get when two of the most forward-thinking people in the drinks business combine forces with the king of the logo mash-up? A: An extremely striking, highly collectible range of products that cleverly and rather cheekily fuse fashion and drinks.
Evil Companionships is the bold and quite frankly brilliant meeting of minds between Alex Kratena, Monica Berg and Dennis Loesch. For those who don’t know Kratena and Berg, we’re not here to judge but we’re assuming you’re not down with the industry who’s who. (Tip: Google them). For those who don’t know Loesch, he’s the Berlin-based conceptual designer who’s latterly been sought out for his limited-edition statement sweaters that wittily merge the distinctive fonts of two top brands. Think Versucci, Pradidas, New Balanciaga and Dioreebok.
So imagine the fun that ensued when they all decided to collaborate on a project to do the same with competitive drinks brands? “Both Alex and Monica had bought one of my New Balenciaga sweatshirts and Monica and I started communicating on Instagram. That was over a year-and-a-half ago but we didn’t start working on this particular project until October last year,” says Loesch. “That was after Alex and I had dinner during Bar Convent Berlin and he told me about the rivalry between the drinks brands – I found it fascinating. To me, it’s even more prolific than fashion. I commented that I thought it was evil the way the brands fought against each other. And that’s when the name Evil Companionship was born; the products were created a few months later.”
The products in question are four specially designed oversized sweaters, playfully bringing together two opposing drinks brands as one across the front. There’s Bomberay TENphire, Belevedoose, Havardi and Marzano. No prizes for guessing the brands in question but if you were in any doubt, their distinctive fonts are there to guide you. It’s all very tongue in chic, carefully thought out and as only 10 of each design has been produced, they’re also highly collectable.
“The first stage was getting Monica and Alex to send me lists of rival brands in each spirit category. That was the fun part. There has to be some rivalry otherwise it doesn’t work” explains Dennis. “From there I chose the ones that sounded best together. The key thing for me is finding names that work phonetically when they’re joined up – like Versucci or in this particular case, Bomberay Tenphire – that’s my favourite. The next step is the blending of the type faces. They don’t actually fit together if you use the original spacing so I play around with the typeface by using a different scale.”
The result is pure genius. Whether there will be any lawsuits, we’ll just have to wait and see.
The 10 numbered and signed editions of each of the ‘Evil Companionships’ sweaters are available to buy from Tayer + Elementary, priced at £200 each. But hurry, they’re going fast.
@tayer_elementary @studioloesch #EvilCompanionships
