Take a look behind the scenes of this rebranding by London agency Purple Creative.
Independent UK design agency Purple Creative has unveiled the new global visual identity for Glenfiddich single malt Scotch whisky, including a redesign of its iconic stag icon (below).
New look: the redesigned stag is closer in style to the painting the original icon was based on
The stag first appeared on Glenfiddich bottles in 1968, and has remained unchanged until its last redesign in 2007 (see below).
The previous logo, created in 2007
The new design (below) simplifies the icon and makes it more anatomically correct, says founding partner at Purple Creative, Gary Westlake. "The antlers were too small for his body and the face looked slightly feminine. We also wanted to elevate the icon's status – to ensure it wasn't recessive within the overall brand logo."
The new logo is more anatomically correct
The icon was introduced originally by Charles Gordon, Glenfiddich's Life President, who based it on the 19th century oil painting 'Monarch of the Glen' by Sir Edwin Landseer. The new version is more in keeping with the original, returning the full 12 points to the antlers.
"Based on his antler points, the previous stag was 8 years old, a young male within a herd," explains Westlake. "We wanted to turn him back into a royal stag – a majestic 12 pointer, which denotes the alpha male, masculinity, power, confidence and maturity."
Below you can take a behind-the-scenes look at the development of the new branding, including moodboard, type system and colour system.
Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects.
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