The Duquesne Club, Pittsburgh’s most respected private club, joined forces with local distillery Wigle Whiskey to create a special small-batch whiskey using honey from the Club’s own apiary. Elias/Savion was tasked with creating a logo for the whiskey that incorporated the brand personalities of both entities while establishing the whiskey as an exclusive reserve.

The creative team’s approach was to create a logo that reflected the inspiration and history behind the reserve itself. As an interpretation of braggot—a simple mix of mead and beer as mentioned in The Canterbury Tales, Beekeepers Reserve is a smooth blend of wheat whiskey and honey whiskey, with a refreshing mix of botanicals, charred maple wood staves and the Duquesne Club’s own honey. The designers chose a Middle English-style scroll inspired by Chaucer’s classic tales and paired it with fonts that reflected the sweetness and stickiness of honey. By marrying these two concepts, our team was able to create a logo that not only works as an effective branding tool but as the perfect centerpiece for the whiskey label.

The logo’s success was apparent when it was regarded as effective and praise-worthy by both parties—the distillery and the Club—and has been incorporated beyond the whiskey label and into event branding and Club marketing publications.