Smoking Barrels American Bourbon
A familiar yet surprising approach to the American Bourbon design challenge. Smoking Barrels is distilled at Ross & Squibb distillery and utilises old, robust stocks that are hand picked for profile before bottling. The lineup begins with a spicy 80 proof High Rye bourbon, followed by a smooth talking and rare 85-proof Wheated Bourbon. The intensity keeps climbing with our 100 proof Single Cask Toasted Bourbon, culminating in a 120 “over” proof monster that is near as dammit to cask strength.
Naming and Positioning
Finding availability of the ‘Smoking Barrels’ name felt like winning the jackpot in a Wild West casino. Powerful, memorable and tied to the land from where it came.
Brand Architecture
Taking an established vintage aesthetic and making it feel fresh and own-able in todays busy brand world is no mean feet, but we think we have managed it.
Product Design
Starting with a stock bottle enabled a quick and cost effective pathway to launch and also afforded the powerful design the full extent of label real estate.
Naming, positioning and brand position
Perhaps the design’s greatest triumph lies in its naming. In a landscape where securing powerful trademarks is increasingly difficult, “Smoking Barrels” is uniquely own-able and memorable. It is a name that feels instantly established - powerful, evocative, and intrinsically linked to the Wild West DNA from whence the brand came. The visual language is an interpretation of classic Whiskey aesthetics. It rejects cluttered heritage tropes in favour of clear typographic hierarchy. The range is anchored by high-impact numbers - 80, 90, 100 & 120 - which serve as the primary identifiers for proof strength. The brand architecture is layered and highly diverse. The core aesthetic lies in a modern homage to the typographic and screen print posters of the Wild West by-gone era.
Product Design
Smoking Barrels represents a strategic expansion of the Kirker Greer portfolio, designed to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the existing ‘Bowsaw’ American Whiskey whilst also carving out its own distinct identity. While Bowsaw relies on a tactile bespoke bottle to tell its story, Smoking Barrels is engineered for commercial agility. By utilising extensive label real-estate on a stock bottle silhouette, the design prioritises speed to market and reduced MOQs. This “label-first” approach significantly lowers initial production costs without sacrificing premium shelf presence, allowing the brand to pivot quickly in a competitive global landscape.
