Jameson's Irish Whiskey

Jameson Irish Whiskey

   I have to do a write up about Jameson's since it's my favorite! A triple distilled whiskey from the beautiful Emerald Isle. Now I admit I am a tiny bit biased when it comes to a anything Irish whether it's one side of my family tree or this delicious whiskey.
   Now let's get to the main dish, the meat and potatoes, the design. We have a beautiful green glass bottle with a classic shape (below). The label is a creamy yellow like that of aged paper and features centered information. The Jameson font is trademarked and was designed for the company by Robert Stradling. This label uses a combination of fonts ranging from serif to sans serif, a font script to a handwritten signature, and varying levels of thicknesses. In good design you can

use multiple fonts but there is a caveat. WARNING! When combining fonts there should be no more than three different fonts. There are ways to use more than three fonts and make them work but the more you add the harder it can be to use them effectively. Understand that when I say three fonts, it means that you can use all the variants of the font. So for example in Times New Roman, you can use bold, italic, bold italic, regular, and that would only count for one font.

   The logo is the Jameson family crest: an x, two anchors, a star, and a ship on a field of red. This is a great idea for a logo although it doesn’t leave much room for improvement. They use a gradient in the x that I find unnecessary but it works better than the Bacardi logo from 2002 (from my last post). With the Bacardi logo, the circle was lost in the gradient, but with Jameson's the x is contained within a thin black line. Below the logo is the family's motto, Sine Metu, which is without fear. This motto is placed on a gold banner with a heavy gradient which is not used well. The gradient is too drastic, too dark on the edges, and too light in the middle. The motto gets lost in the shadows and the banner is almost lost in the highlight. 

   Overall Jameson's Irish Whiskey is a visual as well as delectable delight. While Jameson's is not a top shelf spirit, they do have a beautiful bottle design, and a wonderful product. Jameson's uses three fonts and their variations, they have a defined logo, and a classic bottle shape. They've earned very good marks in my book and it's not just because a Jameson and Coke is my favorite drink. 

   Thanks for reading this week! Make sure to check in next week, leave your comments, and create something!