Design Challenge and Design Ideas

We wished to create a premium, promotional gift to celebrate the rich, history of our studio’s location in Dún Laoghaire. As Kingstown in the 1800’s the town had a rich history of modernity and innovation something we feel we carry on today. We chose to celebrate the arrival of Ireland’s first railway, The Dublin Kingstown Railway and the beautiful 1854 building which served as its terminus. Using this piece we wished to encapsulate the sense of the deep research, visual inspiration, craft and storytelling that is intrinsic to all our packaging projects. We wished to create a sense of luxury and preciousness so that our clients and industry colleagues would feel valued and have a unique limited edition piece of which only 100 copies were made. The unique wild winter botanical gin with foraged Wicklow Botanicals was sourced from our clients at Glendalough Distillery.

How the brief was fulfilled

Our design uses an elegant bespoke glass bottle with a cork and wood closure. The label is a stylish reinterpretation of period inspiration with a light contemporary touch. We have chosen typefaces that evoke the world of the railway, drawing inspiration from the cast iron signage and vintage travel posters that instantly evoke the early days of steam travel. The typographic layout and serrated edge have echoes of early railway tickets. We created a myriad of rich, luxurious detail such as the foiled medallion commemorating the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway alongside elegant panels of storytelling. Marks of authenticity such as the signature of both the stillman and forager underscore the unique provenance of the product. The colour palette is cool and sharp in tones of silver, soft grey and navy, instantly evoking the crisp, clean palate of the gin itself.

Details are subtly layered together to tell a multifaceted story. At the heart of the design is a lightly etched architectural drawing of the station pavilion, which has been lovingly created from detailed study of this beautiful building.

As outer packaging we created sheets of tissue subtly printed with repeat patterns of our design and story. These were simply wrapped and twisted around the bottle before being sealed with a bespoke label and tied with ribbon. This evoked the limited handmade nature of the product.

We worked closely with the craftspeople of distinguished label printers Label Tech to choose the beautiful substrates and premium techniques that elevate our design into a unique collectors item.