On the Scottish island of Barra, Michael Morrison, a craftsman born and bred on the island, gathers seaweed by hand. This seaweed is the key botanical used in Barra Atlantic Gin, which is produced by his company, Isle of Barra Distillers Co., in Scotland. In order to create an identity for a brand rooted in the perfect blend of ingredients—the local kelp, the skilled people behind the company and the small archipelago at the heart of it all—Glasgow, Scotland–based design studio D8 decided to approach the theme of “blends” literally. First, D8 drew a color palette from the Barra landscape and commissioned several original patterns from paper marbler Jemma Lewis. The patterns not only evoke Barra’s shores, but also form a physical link between the gin and its packaging. The studio then designed a logotype as fluid as the marbled pattern itself, as well as secondary marks to reflect the gin’s premium quality and origins. The positioning, “Island Born, Fearless Spirit,” conveys Morrison’s home pride and adventurous nature.

The bottle also marks a global packaging first, showcasing the unprecedented use of label-ready adhesive stock from paper merchant G . F Smith’s Colorplan paper range. Global label solution provider Multi-Color Corporation helped give depth to the marbled pattern by printing a silver foil followed by a sequence of semiopaque whites underneath the marbling that shimmer and give the illusion of depth, like looking into a silvery rock pool along Barra’s shore. The label’s shade of blue matches Imperial Blue, the G . F Smith paper color that D8 used for the outer packaging, and a pinstriped emboss matches Cord, a type of embossing available through the Colorplan range. Each bottle is wrapped in a tissue stock bearing the marbled pattern. To round out the identity, D8 designed and built the website for the distillery.

d8.uk