Whisky is a complex and nuanced spirit, and a single malt can show a profound depth of flavor, with layers of differing and complementary notes. In the hands of an expert, you can conjure a wholly new tasting experience through blending alone.
Likewise, the traditions and heritage of whisky can be overwhelming and make it less approachable to consumers curious about complex spirits like premium blended elixirs. Woven, however, is a new brand that moves away from the conventional tropes and trappings of the whisky world, capturing the opportunity to present-day consumers in a relaxed yet refined way, with branding and packaging designed by Scottish agency Freytag Anderson.
“Arguably Scotland’s most famous product, whisky tends to look the same, using a standardized vocabulary to paint a clichéd image of Scotland,” said Daniel Freytag, creative director of Freytag Anderson.
“Therein lay our opportunity—to challenge perceptions and create a fresh and exciting dialogue with whisky drinkers, old and new. Our aim was to create a brand that feels inclusive and progressive—moving beyond just the spirit to focus on the people and their individual experiences.”
Freytag Anderson reimagined whisky bottles themselves, going for frosted amber-colored apothecary-style screwtop bottles and minimally labeled. It’s very much a departure from the conventional shapes, which usually come long-necked and tall. Consumers won’t find fanciful copy detailing the Scottish countryside surrounding the distilleries or boasting of generations-old traditions still adhered to in the distilling and blending of the elixir inside. No images of big game or family crests make an appearance on Woven’s labels either. Each blend gets an experience number, and it allows the drinker to decide for themselves what the whisky tastes like. The labels are bright monochromatic blocks, with a nod to the Woven brand with peaks cut out the bottom center.
Many premium spirits, including scotch whisky, are presented with tasting notes, a crib sheet of what “experts” find when imbibing what’s in front of them. Woven’s approach is different. They visually present their whiskies using data, designing tasting notes in a way that is both abstract enough to let consumers find their own experience and quantitatively sufficient to give them a logical starting point.
“Whisky brands like to tell drinkers what they should taste, how they should drink, and what they should feel when doing so. We wanted to create a less prescriptive and more exciting way to describe Woven’s liquid,” Freytag explains.
“To do this, we wanted to ask a simple question: ‘What does flavor look like?’ We worked with generative artist Loïc Schwaller to develop a system that would allow us to create beautifully immersive visualizations based on the metrics of each blend. The aim is for people to see whisky and draw their own unique conclusions,” Daniel adds.
Whisky doesn’t have to come dressed up as a traditional spirit to be good, and conventions don’t have to be adhered to, especially when appealing to a new generation of scotch fans. Woven ditches the lore and rituals, and its branding and packaging ditches the category’s norms. Now, consumers can discover and define scotch on their own terms.
