Clydeside's Packaging References The Distillery Site's Ship-Building Past

The Clydeside Distillery is a family-owned whisky distillery and visitor center in Glasgow, Scotland, with a clear mission to revive distilling in Glasgow and tell the story of Scotland’s greatest export.

The site of the distillery plays a pivotal role in shaping the brand identity, narrative, and visitor experience. Located on the banks of the River Clyde, the contemporary architecture of the distillery adjoins a historic pump house, originally built in 1877. The pump house provided hydraulic power for the Queen’s Dock and its swing-bridge, allowing ships to enter and exit the dock with their precious loads of tea, sugar, tobacco, and of course whisky.

All elements of the brand identity and packaging design are intended to subtly reference the distillery site’s ship-building past.

The design of a custom inline display typeface—initially inspired by the pitched roof-lines of the Queens Dock warehouses—allows for a distinct ‘industrial’ typographic voice with a contemporary twist.

The visual reference to shipping is also echoed through the use of a color-split device based on ship hull colors. The color split device runs through all printed materials, from business cards to tasting menus, to merchandise. Throughout the distillery interior, ship hull markers appear throughout the space to convey facts about the area.

Their inaugural whisky Stobcross uses supergraphic-sized typography that wraps around the label, while utilizing a bold stripe of color to establish the color-split system which will play out across all future labels.

The custom glass bottle design uses angled shoulders to echo the angles within the typography. A vertical strip of raised markers runs between the wrap-around label, referencing the load-line markers found on a ship's hull, while a simple neck label subtly references the smokestack of a ship.