Eyes on Design: Douglas McGibbon's Clan Denny

Clan Denny


At the start of the summer, Douglas McGibbon gave its Clan Denny range a thorough facelift. The old packaging had become dated and no longer did justice to the old and sometimes rare whiskies inside. It was also an opportune time to relaunch the brand, as the Douglas McGibbon company turns 70.

The People

Douglas Laing has a very talented in-house designer - who remains unknown for now - amongst its ranks who collaborated with a freelance illustrator to produce the packaging of the new Clan Denny. As Clan Denny sits under a sister company Douglas McGibbon, McGibbon being the name of Fred Laing's mother, they wanted the packaging to have an entirely different look and feel compared to the single cask brands from Douglas Laing: Provenance, Old Particular and XOP.

Douglas Laing distillery & headquarters
The new Douglas Laing HQ will undoubtedly spawn even more
quality single malts and blends with attractive packaging

The Colours

People familiar to the Provenance series from Douglas Laing will see a pattern in the use of accent colours. The regional colours are the same as those shown on Provenance, Old Particular and XOP. The colours are chosen to represent the landscape in each of the Scotch Whisky regions – green to represent the elegant, grassy Lowlands, purple for the heathery Highlands, red for the spicy, often-sherried nature of Speyside whiskies, and blue to represent the crashing waves of Islay.

Clan Denny colours

The Details

The blue colour represents Islay as a region (#0169a6)

Clan Denny 15YO Bowmore
Beautiful slab serif typeface

Clan Denny tasting notes
The tasting notes can be traced back to a member of the Laing family. (FHL stands for Fred Hamilton Laing)

Clan Denny Logo
The display serif typeface from Clan Denny reminds me of classic typefaces used by butchers and bakeries.
(Laura Worthington's Boucherie Block typeface)

Clan Denny  oackaging details
Still figuring out the meaning of the moon... Whisky sleeping?

Clan Denny Details
Detailed artwork with barleycorns and natural figures

Clan Denny Details
Time is of the utmost importance when it comes to whisky
Thanks to Jenny Rogerson from Douglas Laing for taking some time to answer my questions and providing detailed imagery.

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