W
e moved to Clerkenwell,
London 13 years ago. At one
point it was the heart of the
newspaper world, and remains a creative
place: it’s full of architects, agencies,
food markets and more. The building
itself is called The Piano Works, because
pianos were manufactured here at the
turn of the century.
I realise a stag’s head (1) is an odd
thing to have in the studio. It certainly
provokes a lot of questions from our
clients and visitors! It’s a 12-pointer stag,
which means it has royal status. I bought
it on eBay as a reminder to acknowledgeone of our proudest moments:
redesigning the Glenfiddich stag icon
and the rest of its brand identity.
Glenfiddich’s original marque was
inspired by a Victorian oil painting called
Monarch of the Glen, so we tried to
re-capture the majesty and dynamism of
it. We’ve worked with William Grant &
Sons, which owns Glenfiddich, for over 12
years now – I’m proud of the work and
relationships we’ve built up over that time.
My two partners, Andy and Steve, and
I founded Purple in 1993 and all still work
in the business. We set it up straight out
of Preston Polytechnic (now the Universityof Central Lancashire), kick-started by a
Prince’s Youth Trust grant. We’ve come a
long way over the past 26 years, both in
a business sense and emotionally. We
designed and made this neon sign (2) to
constantly remind us of where we started
and how far we’ve come.
For our 20th anniversary we made
our very own whisky (3). Thanks to an
existing client, we wangled a cask of
whisky – 20 whiskies all matured for 20
years and finished in a cognac cask. We
then put them in bottles we’d designed.
There were four epic designs, and each
one captured elements of Purple: stories,Steeped in history
One of the founders of Purple Creative, Gary Westlake, takes us through what makes the studio tick
MY DESIGN SPACECOMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COMGary Westlake is the founding partner and creative
director of Purple Creative – an independent
agency working across sectors including spirits,
beer, industrial, fashion, travel tech and fintech.
Since 1993 it’s tackled brand ideas, identities,
marketing activations and more.
http://www.purplecreative.co.uk