Notorious Beam Team

Glenfiddich have commissioned design agency Johnson Banks to bring their use of barrels to life with a series of artworks.

From PSFK:

"The creative team decided to use the barrel as their muse, exploring it in its singular parts, as a way of depicting the distinctive characteristics of Glenfiddich’s five signature whiskies, aged 12 to 30 years. The end result of the project is a stunning display of industrial pieces that give weight to the passage of time. The image pictured at right illustrates “the angel’s share,” the amount of whisky that evaporates during distillation, the words “For 21 Years We Take a Share” cut into the wood. With so many alcohol companies spending top dollar on advertising campaigns promoting vacuous experiences, it’s a nice change to see a celebration of tradition and taste which is ultimately the thing being sold anyway."

Here's a snapshot of some of the pieces:











For more images and an interesting glimpse into the creative process visit the Flcikr set here.

And for debate about the pros and cons of this project visit the Creative Review blog which is generally in favour of the idea, but many of the commenters feel that the creative execution wasn't radical enough. Maybe they should have commissioned an artist rather than a design agency? That said, I think the work is very impressive. It is something we have thought about for a number of our whisky and cognac brands in the past. Getting people to talk about whisky isn't easy and this project seems to have achieved it.