Client Challenge - A distillery with a name and a focus on distributing whiskey, it was Turn It Up’s task to understand the founders intention and goals and develop a roadmap for a brand to be descriptive on the shelf from the unique position of Erie, PA.
Key Insights - The Whiskey shelf is is dominated by text and typography driven packagings. We wanted to find a way to infuse the fun of music festivals and colorful imagery into the spirits space.
Strategy - Utilizing our unique brand development process we travelled to Erie, PA, visited the market and inspiring beverage manufacturers and restaurants, emersed ourselves in Erie’s unique culture, played guitar around the campfire and aligned with the mix of local pride, alchemy and music festival inspiration to find a unique path for a logo and packaging that is disruptive in the spirits space.
Logo Solution - The brand mark inspiration of the logo comes from the sound hole and strings of a guitar paired with the “AS” of the name while Spirits for the Free Spirit as a tagline embodies the music inspired culture of the company.
Packaging Solution - In an effort to bring the music festival vibe to the Altered State brand , we brought in one of the founders favorite concert poster illustrators to develop original artwork as the core of our packaging to disrupt the black and white dominated text based whisky shelf.
Through our brand development efforts, outdoor experiences touring the area and sharing spirits around the campfire we embraced the unique outdoor species of the Erie, PA region and suggested implementing regional species to expand the distillery’s narrative beyond music. The inspiration provided a direction for John Vogl’s skillset and creative illustrations to pair with a unique die cut wrap of the bottle labels, authentically bringing the region to life with vibrant colors on the shelf.
Brand Guidelines - We delivered clear and concise guidelines to share with employees, business partners, designers and social media managers.
Awards - Our brand development, logo and packaging work with Altered State Distillery earned them four Triple Gold Medals for Packaging Design in the 2020 MicroLiquor Spirit Awards.
