Visually stunning Scottish distillery map for a whisky tasting product needed

The Dram Team

The Dram Team is originally a whisky-tasting-by-post subscription box, sending a tasting set of mini whiskies to our customers each month. I am trying to expand into producing retail products featuring whisky miniatures, which is what this project focuses on. In this instant, the target audience is retail buyers looking for high-end whisky gifts for whisky drinkers, or even whisky drinkers themselves looking to indulge. The secondary audience is the retail buyers who will be our actual commercial customer, and will (hopefully!) choose to stock our products on their shelves - how eye-catching and unique the design is will therefore be super important!

We are developing a "Tasting tour of Scotch whisky distilleries" product, which will enable whisky drinkers to look at a map of Scotch whisky distilleries, pick one they want to try, then drink it there and then.

Note: This full design brief is provided in an attached word document for your ease of reference, with working links etc. All images are attached separately.

Important point: I have chosen to run a competition as I do not know exactly what I am looking for, and want inspiration. My hope is that I will find a design partner who can both secure this initial piece of work, and then continue to work with us, on a paid basis, as a design partner to complete the project.

The product will be similar in construction to an advent calendar, but we wish for it to feature a large and visually stunning artistic map of Scotland, highlighting the location of 25 or so distilleries.

This map will be the centrepiece of the product, and will be displayed on the front of the box, approximately A3 in scale (exact dimensions of box front are 475mm tall x 280mm wide).

The reverse of the box will then have 25 numbered doors corresponding to the 25 distilleries indicated on the map, and the whisky drinker can select a distillery whose whisky they wish to taste, and open the door and remove the miniature bottle from within.

Thus, the whisky drinker gets a tasting tour of 25 Scotch whisky distilleries, but also a wonderful map that they can keep after the whisky is gone (as the doors are on the reverse, the map artwork will be intact).

Must have features:

1) Must be a map of Scotland! Dimensions are 475mm tall by 280mm wide.

2) Initial competition is for the map of Scotland itself, including 25 distillery markers to indicate location and name of each distillery and its number.

Markers can be of any format (e.g. number in circle or square, distillery "pagoda" symbol with number, font of your choice that fits the design).

UPDATE: A list of 25 example distilleries has been attached as a PDF. Please select at least 10 distilleries from this list to include on your artwork as examples of how your distillery location markers and the font/text style you'll use to show the distillery name. Approximate locations (village/town/city name) have been provided.

An interactive map of UK distilleries (covering all Scottish ones) can be found here: http://bit.ly/UKWhiskyMap

A zoomable map of Scotch distilleries can be found here:
https://www.maltmadness.com/whisky/map/Scotland/

Note: Markers can all be the same design, they do not need to be unique to each distillery (other than the name). See attached images for example distilleries and example markers. Final distillery choices will be decided at a later date when product design and whisky selections are made.

3) Preference for the map to highlight the 6 whisky regions of Scotland (indicated in attached imagery) – Highlands, Lowlands, Speyside, Campbeltown, Islay, Islands.

4) Must be roughly to scale (by no means exact and scope for artistic adjustment, but clearly recognisable and proportional to the real thing)

5) Must be visually glorious and very eye-catching - something people would want to keep as a piece of art in its own right that would also look amazing on a high-end retailers shelf (e.g. Selfridges)

6) Final artwork needs to be in AI format (with certain specifications for bleed etc)

7) Final map may also need to allow for, or be adjusted to allow for, areas of high concentration of distilleries to be "zoomed in" on, e.g. with magnifying circles/callouts (e.g. Speyside distilleries – 40 in a small area of Scotland!)

Additional considerations:

1) Final product design will depend on final distillery selection (not yet known), and design may need additional work (paid, of course!)

2) Map artwork requires space for text title at top (text TBC at later date, but e.g. "Scottish Distilleries - A Tasting Tour")

3) Initial project is for front of product only (map and 25 distillery markers). Sides and reverse of product to be designed separately in future (potential additional paid work).

Design guidelines:

1) As mentioned, I am seeking inspiration from designers and do not really know what I want – but I am sure I will know what I like once I see initial designs, so please go with what you think fits the brief – eye-catching and artistically glorious, something that a customer would want to display on their mantelpiece long after the whiskies are gone!

2) Whisky products and whisky in general has a slightly middle-aged vibe to its design and branding, tending to emphasise tradition and history. I simultaneously think this style could either be embraced or rebelled against for this product, or even some combination of the two, which would lead me to suggest 3 broad options for the feel of the design:

a) Historic/Traditional looking map (think aged pirate treasure map style). One example of this feel can be seen here (not a map, but colouring and style):

The Scotch Whisky Advent Calendar:
http://www.whiskyintelligence.com/w…2/SWAC.jpg

b) A colourful, modern, fun map – bright and bold and counter to the middle-aged, traditional vibe of a lot of whisky branding! Three examples of this approach are as follows:

i) Compass Box whisky, who use modern artistic graphic design on their bottles:
https://assets.catawiki.nl/assets/2…c6d160.jpg or http://www.compassboxwhisky.com for more
 
ii) Map associated with the book “Chasing the Dram”, whimsical, colourful and fun, from artist Sarah Mulvenny:
http://www.saramulvanny.com/wp-cont…-Final.jpg

iii) Whisky map of Scotland available as poster on Notonthehighstreet.com:
https://cdn.notonthehighstreet.com/…leries.jpg

c) A halfway house between the two – example below features traditional colours and styling for the actual map, but has relatively modern graphics for the distillery regions/names surrounding:

“Survey of Scotch” distillery map:
https://i.etsystatic.com/6086771/r/…6_o4q5.jpg

3) More excellent examples of artistic and stunning maps can be seen in this Guardian article:

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/…-mapmaking

Of these, I think “London” by Gareth Wood, “The Big Smoke” by Mychael Barratt, “Machu Picchu” by Kevin Cannon and “The South Pennines” by Angela Smyth are the sort of style that could work.

4) If you wish to highlight key features of Scotland, such as cities, lochs, munroes (hills!) or other such geographical or cultural landmarks – please feel free. Not compulsory though.

I am very open to answering questions on this - while I have no fixed ideas about exactly what I want, I am good at making decisions on things like this when given options/examples to choose from, and I am very keen to get a great result - so if I can help you at all, ask away!