St. Petersburg Distillery came to us this time last year as the distillery was currently being constructed. They wanted the first project to be Old St. Pete a premium small batch hand crafted line of spirits. The line was to have vodka, whiskey, rum, and gin. They are very proud to be rooted in St. Petersburg Florida so we really wanted to design something that was classic and timeless, something that would tell the story of the city. Since wrapping up this project we made four more brands including spiced rum, coconut rum, mead, orange liqueur, and vodka. They are a distillery to watch, to learn more about them visit they're website.

-Grant Gunderson

In starting the Old St. Pete label designs I knew right away the general time period and tone i was going for. St. Pete is the sunshine city, with an average of 361 days of sunshine per year. It was an obvious choice to use the sun as our brand personality.

-Grant Gunderson

I started out hand drawing the ornate line work to create a unique border to house the information. Then I scanned the line work, cleaned it up in photoshop, then ran it through a vector process. I only showed 3 or 4 options for the labels and they were all in the same sort of world, just a few different layouts. It's rare to go straight to one design style and feel like its right the first time, but in this case it sort of just fell together.

-Grant Gunderson

The hardest part was getting the sun's expression just right, I wanted him to feel like an old salty dog that just retired and retreated to Florida to drink hand crafted spirits all day. Getting the age just right and the wink to seem as if only you and him knew about the good life was a challenge. Otherwise the process was pretty seamless, i contacted blue label digital about printing the labels. This was my first label design project so they were helpful in explaining the printing process and also the possibilities.

-Grant Gunderson

About Grant Gunderson

Grant Gunderson is a 29 year old, born and raised Floridian. He studied graphic design and fine arts at the Art institute of Tampa. Currently working as a Senior Art Director at Dunn&CO., a full service advertising agency in Tampa Florida. With 8 years experience Grant has had the opportunity to work on a wide range of project, and some international clients. The past year he has had a strong focus in packaging. Learn more about Grant and see his work at his Behance profile.