The brief

Not a crowd. A feeling.

Pinetop is a local craft distiller. Gin is where its heart lives, and North Carolina is a close second.

The founders first pictured their drinker as themselves: finance guys who go camping on the weekend. That audience was too small. The real one was anyone who wanted to feel North Carolina in a glass, to hear the mountains and feel sand between their toes.

Where it starts

Mountains to the sea.

That feeling has two ends. In the west, pine, mist and woodsmoke on the Blue Ridge. In the east, dunes, piers and salt air on the coast. The brand had to carry you from one to the other.

The mountains. Mood reference: mist in the pines on the Blue Ridge.
The craft. Mood reference: made by hand, and it should look it.
The sea. Mood reference: the pier at the end of the road.

The identity

Etched in bark, soaked in mist.

I wanted the brand to look like it had been weathered into place. A slab serif and whiskey-label details borrowed from 19th-century Appalachia, hand-drawn elements instead of clean automation, and a palette of earth and sky: tobacco, coral and pine, navy and sky blue, grounded by charcoal and cream.

Southern signage gave it a visual vocabulary people already knew. Worn edges and sanded textures kept it from feeling like a costume.

The mark. Designed the shadowed slab-serif wordmark, the ribbon banner and the arched Raleigh N.C. line.
The color. Built the palette: tobacco, coral and pine over navy, sky and cream.
The guide. Designed the brand standards, so the system could run without me.
The texture. Built a trail-map contour texture for backgrounds and packaging.
Explorations. Wordmark and illustration studies, worked out in Illustrator before the system settled.
The standards. Logos, color, type, image style, icons and texture, all in one guide.

The idea

Carolina, captured in a bottle.

The packaging

Pour a little. See a little more.

Each bottle wears two labels. The front is clear, with the logo and a stand of pines printed over a white undercoat so they hold up against the glass. The back carries the far view. You look through one, through the spirit, to the other, so the landscape gets its depth from what’s in the bottle.

Full, you see the labels. As the level falls, the view opens up: a mountain lake through the moonshine, the ocean through the gin.

Rendering. The clear front label over the far view, before anything went to print.
Four layers. Designed the label stack: clear front label, white undercoat, the spirit, then the back label.
The reveal. Concept rendering: through the moonshine, a mountain lake opens up behind the front label’s pines.

The detail

The bottle told the story. Every pour took you a little closer to the water, so using the product became part of the brand.

How it got made

Proved on the bottle.

Before anything went to a printer, I printed the labels myself and wrapped real bottles, to make sure the reveal worked through glass and spirit.

What I made for Pinetop’s bottles, with the format and my part in each
DeliverableFormatMy part
Front labelClear, printed over a white undercoatDesigned
Back labelThe far view, seen through the spiritDesigned
Neck stripWrapped over the capDesigned
Reference bottlesHand-printed labels on real bottlesBuilt, to prove the reveal
Reference bottle. Printed the labels myself and wrapped a real bottle to prove the reveal through glass and spirit.
Neck strip. Explore New Roots, wrapped over the cap.

The product

Two spirits. Two legends.

Each flagship bottle tells a story of place. Carolina Moonshine looks down from the Blue Ridge, over layers of misty mountains. Carolina Gin comes in on the breeze, with golden-hour light on the Atlantic and a warm glow on the label.

Both share one label system, so the line reads as one brand on a crowded shelf.

Carolina Moonshine. Designed the label: the mountains, on clear stock.
Carolina Gin. Designed the label: the coast, on clear stock.

The campaign · Concept

One spirit, one road. Ridge to rip tide.

The Pinetop Passage · Concept work

From peaks to pour.

To trace the roots of the spirit across the state, I pitched the Pinetop Passage: a statewide campaign built around a custom-designed truck, with stops from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Outer Banks. It never left the concept stage, but it’s an idea I’d pitch again.

Visitors would pick up a trail passport at distilleries, bottle shops, bars and festivals, collect stamps and enter giveaways along the way. Wood-slice coasters were the giveaway. A Pinetop cooler was the prize.

  1. Stop 01AshevilleThe Blue Ridge. A speakeasy pop-up with exclusive infusions.
  2. Stop 02GreensboroThe Piedmont.
  3. Stop 03RaleighThe capital, and Pinetop’s home.
  4. Stop 04WilmingtonThe coast.
Country to Coast. Designed the campaign badge, shown out on the coast.
The prize. Designed the Pinetop cooler, in pine green and coral.
The giveaway. Designed wood-slice coasters: one coast, one mountain.
The golden pinecone. The winner’s tag: Congratulations, from the Pinetop Passage.
Oysters. Mood reference: the coast, served on ice.
The pour. Mood reference: cocktails on tap.
The toast. Mood reference: the moment it’s all for.

What happened

The story kept pouring.

Pinetop launched with a brand that already felt rooted, on a bottle that rewarded every pour. The Passage stayed on paper, but it mapped where the brand could go next: off the shelf and onto the road.

Why it holds together

One brand, bottle to road.

The same story runs from the label to the merch to the campaign. Meet Pinetop on a shelf or at a bar, and you’d know it.

Next project · 04POC NOW 2026
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