Client: BlackWater Distilling Company

Brand Challenge: To provide counsel on beverage alcohol industry trends that would lead to better and clearer insight from the principals as they entered the distilling and specifically, the already crowded vodka alcohol category.  Working together, we identified the need to remain tied to their community (State of Maryland), using grains and locally sourced materials in the distillation processes, clearly creating an initially strong regional brand, leveraging uniqueness for larger market share.

Design Goal: Create a name, logo and bottle design that reflected the rich Maryland heritage while reviewing every competing vodka brand so as to definitively stand out in crowded shelf space.

Most powerful result: Through powerful collaboration and through listening to the exact needs of the principals, creating renderings and options that could clearly interest potential investors and be ready to “take to market” immediately after production capacity was sufficient.