Conceived as a way to bring Heaven Hill's myriad whiskey brands under a single umbrella, the Heaven Hill Distillery brand was created in 2016. Using the reach of digital as its cornerstone, the brand came to life via a fully responsive website that simultaneously honors the legacy and tradition of Heaven Hill while also positioning it to a new, more youthful audience.
Role: User Experience, Art Direction
The homepage served as the proving ground for how the brand and new design language would come to life digitally. Using strategically placed hits of color to guide eyeflow, vivid photography, and a dynamic typographic system, the resulting look felt clean and contemporary while still remaining true to our audience.
Designing the layout and system elements in wireframe form allowed us to work quickly and iterate through multiple ideas before going all in on visual design.
Once the design language was established, pairing modules to client-approved wireframes allowed us to build out full pages at a rapid pace, reducing the time from project kickoff to site launch.
After launch, additional content modules including featured recipes and a "Match Your Taste" interactive tasting-wheel were added to highlight the range of whiskey brands under the Heaven Hill Distillery umbrella.
Custom illustrations referencing key elements of the Heaven Hill Distillery brand story were commissioned for use throughout the site but also as part of the larger design language. When used, each illustration adds a textural, watermark effect that contrasts nicely against the clean type and ample white space.
A brand standards guide codifying our design decisions into replicable styles was published to ensure consistency across future brand efforts.