Case design for Powers Whiskey: Powers’ competition winner project

During my research prior to thinking about the design aspects for this project I came across a very scarce King Edward VII 1d postal stationery advertising envelope for John's Lane Distillery, Dublin, of Power's Pure Pot Still Whiskey, by Royal Appointment. Which It was apparently produced for the Irish International Exhibition in 1907 and was used with an IPSWICH squared circle in 1907. (picture below)

I was fascinated with this pictorial advertising postal stationery envelope, particularly the advertising graphics for Powers John’s Lane Distillery on one of its sides, which has stamp design from the epoch with the Powers logo and a “Established A.D. 1791” in a circle, that looks like a celtic belt, around it. The advertisement also has “Power’s Pure Pot Still Whiskey” written in very beautiful organic typography.

For the design of my packaging I wanted to integrate the visual elements of that advertising in a way that would give them a contemporary look in the packaging. The 1907 powers stamp was refreshed with the replacement of the old company’s logo in the stamp with the new one. The circular belt with with the “Established A.D. 1791” was kept untouched so as to link the new design to the company’s history, although three swallows were meticulously placed on the circle. In my box design this new stamp the most prominent element and is places on the front of the box scaled up in a way that it reaches two sides of the boxes, creating a three paneled image. The iconic John Powers signature is placed below it on the front of the box design.


The ‘Power’s Pure Pot Still Whiskey’ phrase from the advertisement is kept untouched for the bottom and top flaps of the box and are placed on them by itself in a clean and elegant way. The word Powers was extracted from the phrase in order to create a typographic work for a background design to be used with the new stamp. The letters are seen in the background of the entire design in a playful manner which gives the design a sense of depth as well as enhance the contemporaneity of the work.