# Hennessy debuts new art bottle design

- Link: https://exclusiveaccess.net/hennessy-debuts-new-art-bottle-design/
- Published: 2014-05-16T19:00:22-04:00
- Author: EAN

 

One look at the new [Hennessy V.S.](http://www.hennessy.com/us/) limited edition
label design (available in July) and you could accuse its creator, Shepard Fairey
of becoming a softy. But he’ll gladly drink to that since his use of floral motifs
represent a new perspective on life. After building his name through an aggressive
and bold political style with intense masculine overtones, Fairey is happily exploring
the feminine side of his aesthetic. It’s all due to fatherhood and raising two young
girls with his wife/business partner, Amanda Fairey.

“Being a parent and having a helpless infant to care for made me reconsider a lot
of things and how important the maternal side is and being nurtured. As a guy—not
intentionally—I had not given as much respect or importance to that,” he reflected.“
But I saw this analogy between Hennessy which is distilled multiple times and making
something that reflected that elegant nurturing side of things. So the peaceful 
and decorative elements in the label is the direction things took.”

Fairey, whose poster of President Barack Obama and imagery addressing themes of 
war and environmentalism leads him to identify as an “artist and activist,” still
managed to get somewhat political with his Hennessy commission. You may miss it 
at first glance but he has included a subtle peace symbol on the bottle. “There 
is a little bit of a peace sign there. How could I not be political?”

It is that liberty to not compromise his philosophy that attracted Fairey to become
the latest in a series of artists (Os Gemeos, Futura, and KAWS) to partner with 
the corporate brand as the worlds of art and commerce become ever more transparently
interdependent.

“The cool thing about this project is that when I am traveling promoting Hennessy
I am able to DJ at a club and I can do murals outside and it is free art for everybody.
Hennessy allowed me to indulge several different aspects of what I do under their
umbrella when they didn’t have to. I am grateful for that as they support what’s
important for me.”

Apparently all that matters to Fairey these days—as he maintains his position in
the stratosphere of living artists—is family, balancing art and commerce, reaching
the people and don’t forget, a good drink every now and then.

[_Credit_](http://souleouniverse.com/2014/05/on-the-a-wsouleo-hennessy-debuts-new-art-bottle-design-by-shepard-fairey/)