8 Doors Distillery is a new whisky micro-distillery set to open in John O’Groats in 2021. The £1 million project will establish the first whisky producer in the Caithness village since 1837 and become Scotland’s most northerly mainland whisky distillery.

Working closely with founders Kerry and Derek Campbell we created a whisky brand which feels premium but also accessible – harnessing the uniqueness of the distillery’s location and expressing this in every small detail.

The inspiration for the 8 Doors Distillery name and branding comes from the legend of Jan de Groot, from whom the village of John O’Groats takes its name. De Groot, a Dutchman who once plied a ferry from the Scottish mainland to Orkney (1488-1513). Legend states that De Groot’s seven descendants quarrelled about succession, so he decided to build an octagonal house with eight doors – one for him and each of his seven sons. He also created a seven sided table so that nobody ever sat at the head.

This provenance allowed us to create a brand which references its Scottish roots in a clean modern way – authentic, distinct and quite separate from the established image of Scottish whisky. We wanted to remove all of the traditional brand furniture associated with Scottish Whisky and create a more accessible brand. One of the key focuses for the brand was cask ownership, allowing people from all over the world to join in on the journey. All available casks sold out within 48 hours of being made available online.

The distilleries extreme northerly location informs the positioning – ‘Whisky. From the Edge’. Similarly the 874 Founders Club is named after the distance in miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End the length of mainland UK. The design is inspired by the natural environment and climate – identity, colour palette, typography and textures all combine to create a sense of the rugged isolation found at the very edge of the Scottish mainland.