Case Study: Spotted Bear Spirits

Last week we talked about the importance of a good story in developing your brand. This week we’re going to put our money where our mouth is and show you a startup client that grew to success thanks to maintaining a clear vision, a great story and the right way to tell it. So sit back, relax and join us as we explore an adventure in branding.

When Lauren Oscilowski approached Wheelie Creative for her new project, a distillery in the heart of downtown Whitefish, she had an idea, but needed help turning that into reality. With a deep background and knowledge for high-quality handcrafted spirits and cocktails, she wanted to bring her passion to life with a warm, inviting spot where locals and tourist alike could sit and enjoy a cocktail after a long day of adventuring in the surrounding wilderness that we all love. Spotted Bear Spirits was still in its infancy but the clock was ticking. She needed a logo, branding, label design, merchandise, and much, much more to get this project off the ground and get drinks in customers’ hands.

At the heart of the challenge lies the hyper-competitive local market that Lauren was looking to call home for the new distillery and tasting room in downtown Whitefish, Montana. In addition to bars, breweries and general entertainment, there are a number of other distilleries within a short drive. With this in mind, we had to craft something fresh that would differentiate SBS from the numerous other offerings in the area while appealing to both locals and tourists alike.
Just as the Spotted Bear Wilderness (upon which Spotted Bear Spirits draws its name) is the launching point for countless adventures, this project was an adventure in design. Since we were starting with a blank slate, it presented an amazing opportunity to customize exactly to our client’s needs and desires. By listening to initial ideas and concepts, we were able to craft fun, refreshing, hand-drawn artwork that brought the logo to life.
​
How did it go? Outstanding, to put it mildly. This was the largest project we had ever undertaken and we couldn’t be happier with the results! In addition to an overall logo and branding package, we developed a ton of other fun elements to help Lauren create a fun, welcoming environment.

Multiple bottle label designs, apparel items and wallpaper patterns were designed to carry on the look and feel of the overall experience Lauren was trying to create in her distillery. And yes, you read that correctly. The tasting room needed to have just the right look so, rather than just picking a wallpaper design off a shelf at a box store, two custom wallpapers were designed and printed that now adorn her walls. And for the perfect finishing touch, a 5-foot-tall logo was drawn into the (wet) concrete floor of her production space. Yes, Lisa can now add “concrete artist” to her diverse set of skills.

Once the space was up and running, we had the opportunity to conduct multiple photo shoots, both of the tasting room and distillery space as well as lifestyle shoots reflecting both winter and summer “lookbook-style” photos. These turned out fantastic and help showcase how much heart and soul has gone into bringing this project to life. And finally, to help her showcase her space to the virtual world, a website was created utilizing numerous hand-drawn designs to continue the overall look and feel of her space.

With so many elements taking place and overlapping, this project required heaps of project management to keep everything running smoothly. Luckily, this was an area where we were able to keep a clear head and keep pumping out quality work. Lauren is by far one of our favorite clients and we’re happy to report that her business is thriving in the heart of downtown Whitefish.