ASSIGNMENT:
Teasmith Spirits Co produce Scotland’s first and only premium gin distilled with hand-picked Tea - The Teasmith. Launching a gin in a very competitive market needed guile, creativity and a hand of the past. We didn’t have the budget to commission a unique bottle shape, so careful design consideration across a number of design elements had to show Teasmith’s masterful approach to gin.

APPROACH:

Working with the founders from day one, we helped develop a strategy that would place the product into the marketplace as a high-end premium Scottish gin, whilst evoking its small batch and craft nature without resorting to utilising such overused terms across the packaging and roll-out materials. Everything we created - message, logo, tone, typography had to follow this approach whilst celebrating what made it special.

True craft – not the modern appropriation of the word – was key to our thinking. The craftmanship of the spirit, careful curation of botanicals especially the very specific tea, and a masterful attention to detail were central to the product and the backbone of the brand. This concept was central in the creation of the typeface that would influence everything that followed.

Creating a brand identity of individual character that is relevant and unique to the spirit was the foundation upon which the entire graphic system was based. By looking at the two main botanicals used - Juniper Berries and Tea, we created a symbolic ‘chain link’ graphic that became the basis of both a bespoke typeface - Teasmith Display - and a pattern that would be screen-printed on the bottle itself. Literally ‘wrapping’ the spirit with the key botanicals that are central to the gin’s character and of the very brand itself.

RESULTS:
Classic/Modern/Hand-Crafted/Premium.

The typography achieved everything we set out to. The typeface and the logotype became the backbone of the brand and helped culminate with an incredible full-launch where The Teasmith sold-out their first batch of 560 bottles in under 8 days.

Used throughout key communications, it’s also worth noting that such was the appreciation for the work we did, that our Teasmith bottle and label images have been used by many publications and platforms (e.g. The Scotsman) when highlighting the Scottish Gin market as a whole. This is more than just a interesting ego-boosting fact, its real value is that even before its full launch, the brand we created lead to an awareness of The Teasmith that was reaching beyond its immediate, targeted local market and finding itself in front of gin-lovers across the country.