DRAGON
LEGEND
PACKAGING DESIGN. GRAPHIC DESIGN.
I designed the bottle and packaging for Highland Park - Dragon Legend. A domestic release, set to sit alongside the new core range. Edrington were looking for something bold and dramatic, which gave me some creative license to try something new.
GOLD MEDAL WINNER
Single Malt No Age Statement.
International Spirits Challenge.
Orkney is steeped in Norse folklore and the story of Sigurd the dragon-slayer – who licked dragon’s blood from his thumb and was granted powers of wisdom and prophesy. The brief for this was to create something that represented this epic battle.
The story is dark and menacing and I was able to create bespoke artwork that could be used across the creative. I made the imagery to wrap around the pack using collage. A combination of scale textures, different kinds of paper and coloured ink. We had an intern in working with us as I set about these collages like a man possessed, hopefully something he would take away from the behind the scenes experience.
The pack design was fun too, with lots of layers of embossing, foils and varnishes to create this unique Highland Park edition.
This is a little glimpse into the creative process behind the distinctive pack design. Below are some examples of dismissed design ideas produced during a period of 'play' before finalising the design that would eventually become Dragon Legend. I played with colour, texture and movement, but the main thread was always the scale texture. The story is about a Dragon and serpent in a never ending battle and tghe colour felt a little too playful. We needed something dark and menacing.
This was the developed design. You can see some elements remained from the texture and use of scales, but the colour was heavily reduced and the introduction of red felt more like the aftermath of a battle.
