ABOUT

The Glenmorangie Company occasionally release the rare and exquisite whiskies from its Archive Collection. We were tasked to design the packaging for their highly exclusive 1970’s Anthology. This was a very unusual release as it was not a single bottle but a collection of their finest whiskies created over a single decade. There were five very different whiskies in both their maturation methodology and their taste and colour profile. Only ten sets to be released and sold through auction to whisky connoisseurs and collectors.

Following a search through the brand’s athenaeum to identify the original releases packaging designs and support marketing literature, we decided to do two distinct and radical things for this range. We adopted the brand’s vintage identity and bottle shape to appeal to the nostalgic nature of our highly informed target market. As these were highly valuable whiskies we then needed to ensure we balanced this nostalgia with a contemporary and luxurious interpretation of the graphic identity and outer casing. The colour selection for each whisky was considered on both an individual basis and as a collective whole, we wanted them to be individual but also harmonious when combined.

Due to both the value and rarity of the collection we chose a small Scottish printers near to the distillery that specialised in both hand production of papers and letterpress printing techniques. It was very important that these labels reflected the high level of craftsmanship of the liquids inside the bottles. The archive bottle were decanted into the new nostalgic bottle and resealed by hand with individually colour wax. The labels were hand signed by Dr Bill Lumsden, the head of Whisky Creation at Glenmorangie distillery, and an immensely renowned figure in the whisky industry. The bottles were then housed in a contemporary Tantalus conceptualised by the artist Wouter Scheublin and developed by ButterflyCannon.

As this was for auction, there was no need to consider shelf standout, what was essential was to concentrate on the design detail and overall beauty of the collection. We needed to support the rare whiskies with a packaging format that compelled the collectors to bid.

All ten collections sold in auctions throughout the world gaining an average value of $50,000.

"ButterflyCannon have now been a key agency partner for Glenmorangie for over 6 years. During that time, they have delivered great work across a broad range of design briefs. We respect ButterflyCannon for the quality of their creative work, their quick turnaround of projects and their collaborative approach to working with the marketing and NPD teams at Glenmorangie. As an agency, they always go above and beyond to ensure the end result meets with our high expectations." Mike Atkinson, Global Marketing Manager, Glenmorangie