quatre eaux, une ligne
A perfumer with four fragrances and no photography. Mucha built every poster from the same three zones: a halo behind the subject, ornament pilasters holding the trim, and a cartouche at the foot carrying the dull information. Vervaine keeps all three and adds one rule of its own.
The name in a high contrast serif, centred, with a hairline rule beneath carrying the trade line. It is the only element in the system the line never touches.
Primary lockup with an ornament panel
One unbroken stroke enters the left pilaster, passes behind the halo and leaves through the right. It is drawn from the plant the fragrance is made of, and it is the only thing that changes between the four.
Four muted colours and a gold, on a cream that is never white. There is no black anywhere in the system, including in the type, which is a warm brown instead.
#6E7B4BVervaine, the house scent. The halo ring on anything unnumbered.#6E3B4ENuit. The only colour permitted at full strength on a label.#B4795CMiel. Warmest of the four and the hardest to print evenly.#C9A227Every rule and every halo edge. Foil where the budget allows, flat where it does not.#3A3227All type. There is no black ink in the house, on paper or on screen.A high contrast serif for the name and a book face for everything else. Nothing is set in a sans, including the legal text on the carton, which costs a little legibility and is worth it.
The three zones scale down to a bottle label thirty millimetres wide. On the smallest items the pilasters vanish and the halo becomes a hairline circle, which is the minimum.
Counter card, 148 × 84 mm
Made in Grasse in small batches, sold in four sizes, and never reformulated because a supplier changed.
Les quatreWebsite
Carton, unfolded face
Bottle, 50 ml
Art Nouveau collapses into pastiche faster than anything else in the set. These four are the specific ways it happens.