Vol. 03Beverage · Functional water2026 Concept · Self-initiated

Civic Mineral

A mineral water that behaves like public infrastructure — built to be believed, not sipped politely.

Role
Self-initiated concept. Strategy, naming, identity, packaging, art direction and campaign by AG&CO.
Scope
Positioning, naming, wordmark, packaging system, retail presence, out-of-home campaign
Status
Speculative — developed in-house to demonstrate a full brand build

The assignment

Functional water is a category of soft promises. Pastel gradients, wellness adjectives, a font that apologises for taking up space. Every can says the same thing in a different tint.

We set ourselves a harder problem: build a mineral water that reads as civic, engineered and slightly official — something that looks like it was specified by a department rather than dreamed up in a mood board.

The thinking

Civic Mineral is positioned as public utility, not self-care. The language is regulatory: source, output, composition, issue. Mineral content is printed like a spec sheet, because the spec sheet is the story.

The identity leans on the visual grammar of transit and utility — numerals, rules, stencil-adjacent capitals, one signal colour. Restraint reads as competence. Competence reads as credibility.

Wellness sells feelings. Civic Mineral sells facts, and lets the feelings arrive on their own.

Palette

Municipal inkSignal greenFilter stonePaper

Brand system

Voice

  • Register — Technical, dry, quietly confident
  • Sentence shape — Short. Declarative. No adjectives that can't be measured.
  • Never — Glow, ritual, journey, elevate

Type & mark

  • Display — Wide industrial capitals, tight tracking
  • Data — Monospaced numerals for composition tables
  • Mark — Wordmark plus issue number, always paired

The work

Primary can. Composition data is set as the hero element — the label reads as a public notice rather than a be
Primary can. Composition data is set as the hero element — the label reads as a public notice rather than a beverage.
Cold-case presence. Tested at shelf distance: the can has to hold its own next to twelve pastel competitors.
Cold-case presence. Tested at shelf distance: the can has to hold its own next to twelve pastel competitors.
Four-pack carton. Issue numbering runs across the panel so the multipack reads as a series, not a bundle.
Four-pack carton. Issue numbering runs across the panel so the multipack reads as a series, not a bundle.
Out-of-home. A single line of copy at billboard scale — the campaign borrows the tone of a municipal announcem
Out-of-home. A single line of copy at billboard scale — the campaign borrows the tone of a municipal announcement.

The outcome

Civic Mineral exists to prove a thesis — that a category defined by softness is most disruptable by precision. The system is built end to end: name, voice, packaging, shelf behaviour and a campaign that would run in a bus shelter without any explanation.

It is the clearest statement of how AG&CO. works. Find the reflex every brand in the category shares, then do the opposite on purpose.

Taking on a small number of brands per quarter

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