About the project
Whiskies du Monde is a creator and exclusive distributor of spirits worldwide. Every year, they develop new tools to share their knowledge, guide their customers, and reach their consumers. In this context, we were asked to design a product to present spirits brands to wine merchants intuitively and appealingly.
Key figures
5,000 copies published
2 millions bottles sold
70 brands
250 spirits brands
Client
Whiskies du Monde
Industry
Spirits & beverage
Services
Branding, catalog design
Before creation: streamlining work processes
During the initial stages of discussions with the client, we felt it was essential to set up agile workspaces. This enabled us to streamline communication between the various marketing and sales teams, thereby saving valuable time. These processes are still being used by the client today.
The Whiskies du Monde teams are made up of spirits professionals, marketing experts, and a strong sales force. It was necessary to meet with each party in order to present a clear message and avoid frustration.
We simplified the technical approach to focus on structuring the current and future product range. All exchanges were categorized on Google Drive, with secure sharing management by team. Google Sheet allowed us to build a scalable layout with regular backups. With all these tools online, we are able to communicate and work with the project teams on a daily basis, as if our experts were integrated into the client's organization.
Building the grid / catalog identity
Spirits have been divided into 9 top categories, each with its own color code.
We encountered an additional difficulty with the Whiskey section, which has a distinct taste characteristic known as a subcategory. This refers to the type of whiskey, such as single malt, triple malt, blended, bourbon, etc. We have identified them with an additional color code that will appear both on the products and in the summary in the form of simplified dots.
Single grain
Single malt
Rye
Blend
Wheat
Bourbon
Irish whiskey
Each brand has its own identity, so we have implemented a robust framework that can accommodate different layouts. We identify the spirit's origin (country), and sometimes the region for certain countries such as Scotland (Highlands). A simplified mini map provides a visual and graphic reference point for the distillation location.
The composition of the texts has been meticulously crafted to maximize readability while remaining pleasant and elegant. The chosen design approach was to maintain excellent readability with modern typographies, some of which reflect the Japanese-inspired aesthetic dear to the distributor.
The covers: creation of a range concept
The tools offered by Whiskies du Monde must be designed to stand the test of time and reflect the brand's range. We therefore conceived the cover as a showcase, reflecting the distributor's expertise. Each year, in collaboration with the in-house teams, we propose different paper styles and finishes.
The GMUND paper ranges and ICMA coppers have won people over with their originality and their similarity to the products used in the production of spirits (the coppery effects of distillation stills). Some editions feature original materials such as turquoise leather for a disruptive effect.
Photographic visual identity
In order to dress up the distillery and brand pages in an elegant and relevant way, we worked with the project teams to source ranges of photographs of iconic locations and emblematic elements. We also asked the spirits brands themselves to provide us with material about their origins so that we could stay in tune with the story we wanted to tell.
We therefore selected landscapes, distillation sites, master distillers, and close-up images of bottles to avoid redundancy with the numerous packaging photos already featured on the listing pages.