It’s been an exciting week over here at Block Club with the opening of Tommyrotter Distillery, whose identity, branding, packaging and interior design we have been working on for over a year. I’m very happy to finally share some of shots of the label design we did for the bottles.
Much consideration was given to a multitude of competing design and legal factors: bright colors for distinction on the shelf, sturdy, water resistant paper, appropriate type sizes in highly contrasting colors for required text, correct verbiage and placement of regulatory information, all of which had to be checked, checked and rechecked before being passed through the state and federal approval processes.
Inspired by the geometry of the Arts and Crafts movement that informs much of the brand, as well as the ingredients of the spirits themselves, we created two distinct patterns for the gin and vodka neck labels.
A last minute switch took us from a smoother stock to a warm white, highly tactile stock from Fasson, which worked out beautifully. Finishing details include sawtooth edging on the main label and neck labels, embossing of the Tommyrotter logo, brand mark and ingredient icon and a federally required over-the-cap seal that also happens to look really awesome.
It’s always like Christmas when a piece comes back from the printer around here, lots of ooh-ing and ahh-ing (and always the obligatory anxiety-inducing “Hey – is it supposed to say Tommyrotter Dairy Farm?”). These labels, after so much time in the design phase, so much energy spent proofing and pushing them through the legal channels, so much back and forth with the printer, and the impending deadline of opening day at the distillery brought a whole new level of anticipation.
I’m happy to say we are thrilled with the finished product, and to finally see them on the shelves at Tommyrotter this weekend (and on social media) was a real treat.