Purple works on Glenfiddich visitors’ centre

Purple has created environmental graphics and exhibition design for the Glenfiddich Visitors’ Centre in Dufftown in Scotland.

The consultancy began working on the project a year ago, as part of its role as the distillery’s main creative agency.

Purple was tasked with creating graphics and interiors for the visitors’ centre that would set the tone for the start of the distillery tour and reflected the company’s brand essence of ’pioneering spirit’, says Purple copywriter Jamie Fleming.

Purple created a family tree of the brand’s five generations of family ownership, starting with founder William Grant, using archive photographs and real frames. To the left of the family trees a leather bound family album, which has been displayed on a plinth, to allow visitors to delve deeper into the family’s history.

The background image is a large-scale recreation of the distillery scene found on Glenfiddich packaging.

Purple has created a timeline, which features 16 stories of ’unique pioneering moments’ in Glenfiddich’s history, says Fleming. The consultancy pored through the archive with help of the distillery archivist to find images to illustrate each of the 16 events.

Fleming says, ’The main focus of the images we used is people. We wanted to celebrate the uniqueness of [the brand’s] craftsmen’.

Purple also created four interactives, which allow customers to access more information and images relating to the timeline.

The consultancy created an annotated map of the site, using an original map from the Royal Geographical Society dating from 1905, and created illustrations to show different areas of the site in the style of the original map.

Purple has also created a reception area for the centre, featuring a wooden, branded desk and two of Glenfiddich’s key bottles, the 1963 single malt and the current 12-year-old whisky.