SERVICES

branding, identity design, package design, page layout design

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ABOUT THE PROJECT

This branding project came about very soon after I started working at the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS). There were no default colors, fonts, imagery, none of it. This was a really huge project for me and my coworker to take on. When I came on board this was one of the first things I wanted to fix because there was no identity to speak of. After a lot of work and revisions the CEO finally signed off and I am very happy with the results.

 

The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. is a trade organization for those within the distilled spirits industry. They represent the industry on capitol hill and across the country. They've been around for over 85 years now. I knew a couple of things off the bat. DISCUS needed to have the same tone and language of their partners within the industry. We did a lot of research looking at big distillers like Bulleit, Jack Daniels, Woodford Reserve, and many more. I think something I noticed in particular was the grit and heritage of a lot of these brands. What I thought was interesting and difficult was blending the heritage motif as well as the modern motif. To do this we had to utilize contrast in a really effective way. For example we used a very modern san serif and a very old school san serif. Our colors we drew from ingredients and materials that are used across the industry. I also came up with the idea to use icons as part of our branding elements. DISCUS definitely needed a visual aid to help explain more complex topics to all of it's members as well as those DISCUS reaches out to. The icons themselves feel hand drawn to further blend in with that grit motif mentioned above. The imagery chosen for the brand is very clean and modern. We also chose to have a black and white option to add more diversity in our imagery playbook. Lastly there are many assets created by me to see all of those assets come together to build an effective, modern, and heritage brand.