Silent Pool Distillers

Design Agency: Seymourpowell
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: Silent Pool Distillers
Location: London, UK
Packaging Contents: Gin

Seymourpowell makes a splash with Silent Pool Distillers

Leading design and innovation company, Seymourpowell, is pleased to announce details of its recent collaboration with Silent Pool Distillers to create the company brand as well as the branding and packaging of their first national and eponymous spirit, an artisan gin distilled in a historic location in the Surrey Hills.

Born out of a passion for distilling excellence and a desire to create a unique spirit drinking experience, Silent Pool Distillers was the dream of a group of individuals drawn together by a common passion for the precision and innovation of craft distilling. With an aspiration to create artisan spirits in a historic location in the Surrey Hills the entrepreneurial team approached Seymourpowell, to turn their vision into reality.

With this brief in place, our first task was to create the company brand identity, capturing the spirit and tone of the fledgling distillery.

The increasingly crowded artisan spirit market meant we had to clearly articulate a distinct proposition. Visiting the distillery, nestled in the depths of the wooded Surrey Downs, offered the first droplets of inspiration, which distilled into the essence of the brand ‘Instinctive Precision’. ‘Instinctive’ representing the confidence in their collective intuition, albeit based on real depth of experience in their various fields of expertise. ‘Precision’ captures the love of detail, intricacy and accuracy required to get the delicate balance of botanicals used in their gin making process.

The natural spring source of The Silent Pool used to distil and blend its fine spirits was to play a critical part in not only the brand name but also the beautifully crafted gin bottle, which is the flagship product for Silent Pool Distillers.

Seymourpowell Director of 3D Branding, Neil Hirst, said: “This has been a great project, seeing the raw energy and ambition of this diverse group of individuals transform into a focused brand and hugely successful product. Our collaboration has been totally complimentary and the resulting design and its success is a testament to the relationship.”

With the brand identity in place the team at Silent Pool Distillers asked Seymourpowell to create a unique and highly desirable brand and packaging design for the Silent Pool Gin that would appeal to gin aficionados and bartenders alike. The final bottle needed to express this premium product, drawing inspiration from the Silent Pool itself, the legend of the spirit of a doomed maiden pursued into the pool by Prince John, the bespoke ingredients and of course the instinctive precision which represented the heart of the brand. In addition there was the desire to create a strong visual signature that consumers would recognise without reading the brand name, and which would also work when the bottles were backlit in high-end bars.

The result, a multi award-winning design which combines a physical representation of the complex flavor combinations needed to create a one-of-a-kind gin with the mythology of Silent Pool. The striking aqua-green waters of the pool are embodied in the glass and stopper colour and the copper decoration is inspired by the copper of the beloved Holstein still used to distill the handcrafted gin. The intricate copper illustrations entwine elements of the legend and all 24 of the botanicals used to create Silent Pool Gin’s refined profile.

Ian McCulloch, Founder of Silent Pool Distillers comments, “Seymourpowell’s depth of knowledge has been invaluable, it has been a great team effort working with a dynamic brief. They have helped a young company bring a project to life, making us not only competitive but surpassing our expectations. We have benefited from a robust and energetic team who took our vision and turned it into a reality. We’ve had to rapidly ramp up production in order to meet demand.”

This is the first step in the relationship between Silent Pool Distillers and Seymourpowell, and work has already begun on the next phase of Silent Pool brand development.