Outpost Vodka
A micro-distillery's first craft spirit.
Outpost Vodka was the first spirit to come out of Wander North Distillery, located in the arts district of Northeast Minneapolis. They believe in using locally sourced ingredients to craft high-quality spirits. You might call that “grain to glass.” They call it good sense.
I designed two versions of the artwork and packaging for the spirit, a clear, silkscreened design and a dark, paper label for their smaller bottles.
"Not all those who wander are lost."
Brian Winter founded the distillery in 2013; the first veteran owned distillery in Minnesota. Production and distribution started in August of 2014. The Wander North name is tied to their personal philosophy that people should push boundaries to find their own way, regardless of what it looks like to anyone else. When in doubt, they defer to J.R.R. Tolkien quite often.
I felt right at home working with Wander North, as I have had a lot of experience working in the wilderness -- I spent some years leading wilderness canoe trips in Lake of the Woods, MN. I also love to camp and to hike; it felt like a match made in heaven.
The bottle is silk screened with the design to produce look and feel that stands out in an over-crowded shelf. The main symbol of the design is an island with a red dashed-line and X, symbolizing the journey to your destination. The island is overlaid with topographic lines and markings pulled from a map I had used during my time leading trips. The island itself is based on the island I was stationed out of, Oak Island, MN.
In addition to the main 750ml bottle, Wander North has produced a smaller 350ml bottle. With the smaller bottle, it was decided to go with a paper label rather than a silk screened label. To create distinction between the two I designed this black-label for the smaller bottle.
