Korbel · Chalet Elixir · Case Study

Concept rebrand Brand & packaging 2023 → 2026

A California champagne house, sent to a 1960s ski resort.

The Chalet Elixir bottle hero: a champagne bottle standing in fresh snow with pine sprigs, its cream label wrapped in retro green-and-orange mountain artwork. — Bottle hero

02 — At a glance

At a glance

Project: Self-initiated concept rebrand of Korbel California Champagne
Concept: "Chalet Elixir": a 1960s alpine ski-resort world centered around après-ski culture
Role: Art direction · brand & packaging design · AI direction
2023 tools: DALL·E 2 · early Midjourney · Illustrator · Photoshop
2026 tools: Claude Code · Higgsfield AI
Status: Concept / portfolio exploration, not affiliated with Korbel

03 — The short version

The short version

A self-initiated rebrand of Korbel as a 1960s alpine resort pour, built around après-ski culture, with a new label system, a travel-poster campaign, and a packaging line. I first executed it in 2023 with the AI tools of the moment, then returned in 2026 to push the art direction further with better ones. This page shows both: the original concept, and where it went.

04 — The brand

Chalet Elixir, the system

Korbel's actual label whispers grocery store. The concept reframes it as a destination: a triangular pine-and-peak motif, a cream ground, persimmon and pine pulled from 1960s travel posters, and a script that belongs on a chairlift ticket. The new logo was hand-built in Illustrator, never generated.

The 2023 label system sheet: triangular pine and mountain motifs in green and orange on cream, with the Korbel Chalet Elixir script lockup. — 2023 · Label system (Illustrator, by hand)

Before and after: the original Korbel bottle next to the redesigned Chalet Elixir bottle with the triangle motif label. — 2023 · Before / after

05 — The work

Chalet Elixir, then and now

The champagne tower

The 2023 champagne tower: a woman pouring atop a pyramid of coupe glasses, alpine setting. — 2023

The 2026 champagne tower: a woman in a pine-green ski suit pours champagne atop a glass pyramid, halftone poster texture, alpine chalet behind. — 2026

The bottle

2023 bottle scene: the redesigned Chalet Elixir bottle rendered against snowy peaks. — 2023

2026 bottle hero: the mountain-art label, snow and pine staging. — 2026

The campaign world

A weathered vintage sports car (repainted green over its original orange, paint peeling to reveal it) loaded with skis and a champagne crate, parked by a Korbel Chalet Elixir trail signpost on a snowy pass, bottle in the foreground. — The arrival

A retro photo-collage of a mid-mountain terrace party with diagonal green-and-orange stripe bands and an orange Korbel gondola arriving. — On the mountain

A heavily screen-printed retro travel-poster of an apres-ski party on a chalet terrace, halftone texture and faded inks. — Aprés-ski · poster

A clean mid-century illustration of an apres-ski terrace party in green and orange ski wear against snowy peaks. — Aprés-ski · illustration

06 — Packaging

Follow the arrows

A new idea from the 2026 refinement: gift packaging shaped like ski-trail directional signs, with routed white borders, black-diamond markers, and an arrow that points somewhere worth going. Two tiers: a matte premium box, and a special-edition enameled tin with a vintage skier panel.