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Uncle Chicken's Sippin' Whiskey

Branding & Packaging

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Services

Photography
Custom Typography
Brand Merchandise & Apparel
Packaging System
Branding
Logos, Iconography & Illustration
Strategy
Brand Management
Point-of-Purchase
Copywriting
Art Direction
Brand Messaging

Team

Creative Direction: Christian Helms
Design Team: Emily Prestridge, Becca Lang
Copywriting: Andy Ogburn
Production Team: Crystal Glover, Kayla Dockery
Brand Management: Ryan Kitchens, Caroline Kirby
Photography: Nick Cabrera, Cristina Fisher

The Story

They’ve been called “the new torchbearers of Southern music.”

But Whiskey Myers is more than a pullquote. They’re a group of musicians unbound by classification. From country to rock, and from the blues to psychedelia, the band’s inspirations span the musical spectrum, and their ascension up the charts in multiple genres is proof.

So in launching a custom bourbon for Whiskey Myers fans and the world at large, we knew we had to create something unexpected — equally unbound by category convention.

You may recognize them from their appearances alongside Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. Maybe you saw their cameo in Yellowstone. But at its core, Whiskey Myers is just an original sound hailing from Palestine, TX.

For over a decade they’ve been growing their fanbase from East Texas out to both coasts and beyond. Their critically-acclaimed most recent release, Tornillo, is a masterclass in musical evolution. So the time was right to create a lasting, meaningful connection between Whiskey Myers and their audience. To give listeners — and their friends, and their families — something beyond just the music to share together.

Whiskey’s in their name — so that part’s simple. The hard part? Writing songs from the heart. Working day-in, day-out on the road. Sharing stories you just can’t make up.

And putting all that in a single bottle.

To give Whiskey Myers a whiskey of their own, we teamed up with the band and the Bespoken Spirits group to create a whiskey that captures the essence of Whiskey Myers — a group that perfectly balances a chip-on-our-shoulder sound with a penchant to let loose and have a hell of a lot of fun.

First came the flavor. Bespoken specializes in custom, small-batch spirits that work to protect the planet through a unique, never-before-seen distillation process. Bespoken and Whiskey Myers worked to design some juice with a taste, a color, and an aroma that felt at home not just on shelves but on the Whiskey Myers tour bus, and in the merch tent at every show.

We worked hand-in-hand with Whiskey Myers and Bespoken to craft an unmistakable and unforgettable brand identity. And it all started with a name.

We covered all kinds of Whiskey Myers inspirations, from musical nomenclature to Texas ghost towns before ultimately landing on a name inspired by a raucous friend of the band: Uncle Chicken’s Sippin Whiskey.

The band’s stories are one of a kind, and the mysterious Uncle Chicken character became the perfect emblem of the Whiskey Myers attitude. (Not to mention, it feels like there’s an Uncle Chicken in every town — howling at the moonlight ‘til he’s crowin’ at the dawn.)

To bring the story to life visually, we covered the brand universe in woodblock illustration and gooey, psychedelic type — a perfect tie-in to the band, their recent releases, and where they’re headed down the road.

The psychedelic scenes and the neo-Western merchandise brought life to this one-of-a-kind bourbon on Whiskey Myers’ latest 23-city tour. If you caught a show, you might’ve heard whispers rumbling through the crowd: “Who Brought Uncle Chicken?!”

Helms Workshop®