The visual identity for the English Whisky Guild formed part of my final major project, within my Visual Communications Degree. This live project was subsequently picked up by the Guild, with a final version launch in spring 2026 (not shown).
The visual identity needed to bring together a wide range of English distilleries and future trails under one unified cohesive identity. Within this, the identity needed to ensure it did not overpower or clash with a wide range of stakeholders' existing brands.
My approach was to focus on the founders of the distilleries and a concept to Discover- the founders' stories, Explore- the English Whisky regions. And Experience- the best of English whisky.
Local flexible patterns were designed to provide regional identity to each trial, alongside flower motifs reflecting the area. English whisky does not yet have a distinct regional flavour profile, so it was important to communicate location, while allowing the distilleries to own the whisky's dominant visual language to ensure contrast and visual clarity in user experience.
The founders also play a distinct role in this project as they largely still work in the distilleries, unlike the sector's competition, where larger corporations dominate. This gives a powerful level of authenticity to this emerging sector.
The brand mark is a nod to how English Whisky operates a grain-to-glass process, where it grows and controls its own grain, which, unlike other producers. The mark is elegant and born from a focus on premium fashion brands, where simplicity speaks to quality. Here it also avoids brand clashes internally with distilleries, while also appealing to the discerning millennial audience and the desire to lean into the growing diversity in the female drinkers, while removing perceived stuffiness, essentialism on how whisky is consumed and the historic male dominant visual language of the wider sector.
The sub marks within the brand link into the primary logo while also nodding to their geographic location. The Figma prototype for the site also takes users through the design concept and emphasises the need for slow tourism through gentle animations, over scaled images that users must scroll through, each giving a sense of calmness. The founders' gallery shares the story of each distillery, the craft behind their whisky and the first of their whiskies to be made available to the public, binding the identity in the founders' stories.
This was a complex, multi-layered identity system and project that involved working extensively across the brand, a range of stakeholders, and will be coming to the UK market in 2026.…The visual identity for the English Whisky Guild formed part of my final major project, within my Visual Communications Degree. This live project was subsequently picked up by the Guild, with a final version launch in spring 2026 (not shown).
The visual identity needed to bring together a wide range of English distilleries and future trails under one unified cohesive identity. Within this, the identity needed to ensure it did not overpower or clash with a wide range of stakeholders' existing brands.
My approach was to focus on the founders of the distilleries and a concept to Discover- the founders' stories, Explore- the English Whisky regions. And Experience- the best of English whisky.
Local flexible patterns were designed to provide regional identity to each trial, alongside flower motifs reflecting the area. English whisky does not yet have a distinct regional flavour profile, so it was important to communicate location, while allowing the distilleries to own the whisky's dominant visual language to ensure contrast and visual clarity in user experience.
The founders also play a distinct role in this project as they largely still work in the distilleries, unlike the sector's competition, where larger corporations dominate. This gives a powerful level of authenticity to this emerging sector.
The brand mark is a nod to how English Whisky operates a grain-to-glass process, where it grows and controls its own grain, which, unlike other producers. The mark is elegant and born from a focus on premium fashion brands, where simplicity speaks to quality. Here it also avoids brand clashes internally with distilleries, while also appealing to the discerning millennial audience and the desire to lean into the growing diversity in the female drinkers, while removing perceived stuffiness, essentialism on how whisky is consumed and the historic male dominant visual language of the wider sector.
The sub marks within the brand link into the primary logo while also nodding to their geographic location. The Figma prototype for the site also takes users through the design concept and emphasises the need for slow tourism through gentle animations, over scaled images that users must scroll through, each giving a sense of calmness. The founders' gallery shares the story of each distillery, the craft behind their whisky and the first of their whiskies to be made available to the public, binding the identity in the founders' stories.
This was a complex, multi-layered identity system and project that involved working extensively across the brand, a range of stakeholders, and will be coming to the UK market in 2026.WW…