Tasmanian LARK Distillery takes flight with new identity, packaging and brand world designed by LOVE., to support global expansion with an innovative take on luxury New World whisky

Tasmanian whisky distiller LARK launches a category-defying rebrand to position itself at the forefront of luxury New World whisky. The ambitious redesign, crafted by Manchester-based creative agency LOVE. and encompassing everything from naming and a bespoke bottle design to a multi-faceted wider brand world and communication assets, embraces a different approach to cutting through. It casts off the established traditions and tropes of heritage distillers in favour of cultural insight, beautiful storytelling and celebrating the care and craft that goes into LARK.

LARK is Australia’s leading luxury single malt distiller and a trailblazer in the industry. Its original founders Bill and Lyn Lark overturned centuries-old Tasmanian distilling laws to be able to produce the LARK on the island. With Bill often referred to as the ‘godfather of Tasmanian whisky’, they spent decades honing their craft. As LARK now looks to expand outside of Australia, the new identity and brand world mark a significant evolution in its journey – from a celebrated local brand to a global pioneer flying the flag for luxury new world whisky. It repositions LARK as a premium choice for the new luxury audience of whisky collectors and explorers.

Cleo Smeeth, LARK Global Brand and Marketing Director: “LARK is a brand born from the unique qualities of Tasmania – its climate, its people, and its creative spirit. This rebrand celebrates those roots while positioning us as a leader in luxury new world whisky. It’s a bold step forward for LARK, and we’re excited to share it with the world.”

A brand born of nature and creative freedom

The main ambition of the redesign was to reinvigorate the founding brand of Tasmanian whisky for a new luxury audience in Asia and Europe, alongside LARK’s Australian home market. LOVE. worked in close partnership with LARK to uncover what lies at the heart of its ‘Made of Tasmania’ tagline. The team built the brand strategy around LARK’s unique position as a whisky born of the remote island’s richly evocative ‘super climate’. It also took inspiration from the distiller’s freedom of expression and creativity unfettered by ‘old world’ category expectations and traditions.

David Palmer, Executive Creative Director at LOVE., says: “Tasmania is a wonderfully diverse place, home to ancient rainforests, vast rugged peaks, bio-luminescent seas, smooth white sandy beaches and a super-climate that provides the perfect conditions for making world-class whisky. Our strategy is built around the idea of a ‘mystical island’, perfectly encapsulating Tasmania’s position at the edge of the world. We wanted to evoke its culture, ethereal majesty and the very nature of the land and landscape that drives its people’s character, passions and quirks. The result is a brand world that truly makes it feel like LARK is a whisky from another world.”

The redesign brings this rugged beauty and creative flair to the fore, positioning the island as a mystical place of extremes – where hot and cold, tradition and innovation, nature and craft collide to create something truly extraordinary. The creative territory is woven through every element of the brand, from the packaging to the wider brand world, including newly commissioned photography and videos – and inspiring the future direction of its whisky innovation.

Elevating an icon

Key design elements of the visual identity include the LARK wordmark, redrawn to reflect the tapered forms of Tasmanian leaves and the beak of the skylark brand mascot. The skylark icon has also been imbued with Tasmanian motifs to help amplify the brand’s unique island provenance, featuring the national flower of Tasmania (the blue gum bud) and the silhouette of Cradle Mountain. A Tasmania roundel featuring a stylised silhouette of Tasmania also appears across brand applications.

At the heart of design is a hero illustration of the skylark with the mascot elevated as a symbol of freedom, creativity and innovation. Crafted by illustrator Martha Olivia, it brings to life the wonders of Tasmania’s natural environment, featuring native ferns and plant life. It is used primarily across the packaging in distinct colour shifts to reflect different liquid stories.

The LOVE. team also had to bring the new positioning to life off-pack, cementing LARK as a brand far removed from category traditions, so commissioned and art directed a stunning suite of photography and motion assets for use across communications and activations. Photographer Ben Maze and videographer Ben Coope spent two weeks camping across Tasmania, capturing the island’s super-climate, ever-changing weather and most unique vistas, to tell the story of a whisky shaped by Tasmania’s environment. In addition, the core illustrations’ plant elements have been crafted into a bespoke wallpaper design for off pack, inspired by the botanicals of the distillery’s hero Single Malt Whisky, Devil’s Storm.

Exquisite detail and craft

The intricate storytelling extends to the bespoke bottle design. It features distinctive broad shoulders in a nod to the original flask design, with a sweeping silhouette crafted in homage to the elegant form of the lark bird. The sculpted facets at the foot of the bottle subtly evoke layered feathers, capturing both motion and poise in a single, fluid form.

Additional details include an exquisitely engraved stopper as a mark of craft and character; and a semi-opaque blue coating to the base that creates a mesmerising gradient to evoke Tasmania’s climate extremes.

Garry Calderwood, Creative Director at LOVE., adds: “This project felt like an opportunity to do something different, to totally reimagine the category – and craft a new way of representing new world whisky. In close partnership with LARK, whose team allowed us to truly get under the skin of their heritage and vision, we have built a brand world that represents something unique, something that will inform the future of the distillery, its communications – and the sector as a whole.”