The wild personified: Creative direction for experiential gin wizards

The Yorkshire Explorer

Sector
Food & Drink, FMCG

Services
Brand Identity, Packaging Design, Print Design, Collateral, Vehicle Wrap, Social Content Design

Challenge

Callum and the team at The Yorkshire Explorer approached us to help them develop a new brand identity - reflecting their passion for the Yorkshire landscape, appetite for adventure and attention to detail.

The visual identity also had to encompass both the distilling and the experiential offering of their business.

Context

The Yorkshire Explorer knows a thing or two about spirits. As well as distilling their own specially-crafted botanical gin in the Dales, they also use their expertise to offer unique drinks experiences for events.

Solution

Taking cues from the brand’s name and their love of wilderness and adventure, we began by creating a visual language rich with the iconography of maps. We used contours and dotted lines to create a sense of movement and to echo the Yorkshire landscape.

We then worked with a local illustrator to create a suite of hand-painted botanical illustrations. These were used on the bottles, to emphasise the opulence of the gin’s ingredients and the traditional distilling methods.

We also commissioned a series of pen and ink drawings of botanicals and of the brand’s iconic Land Rover Defender. These provided another visual element for print and digital.

With the addition of a strong rose and compass logo, the brand mark was complete.

The Yorkshire Explorer now had an archetypal brand identity to use across packaging, print, digital and experiential.

“Our knowledge and experience in the sector is second to none. It’s tough, highly competitive and so narrow. Stand out is key and this is what we have been crafting with the United by Design team. They have carved out a space for us… we continue to work with them to grow into it.”