Alcohol / Charity & third sector / Graphics

Ewan's Cut - Rewriting The Script

Introducing EWAN’S CUT: The Ewan McGregor 26-year-old single malt whisky. 240 bespoke whisky bottles to raise over £135,000 for Children's Hospices Across Scotland.

The Challenge

To call this a ‘problem’ would be a little... dramatic. Then again that’s apt; our client was one of the world’s foremost actors. It all started when Ewan McGregor and his brother Colin approached Leith to help with a name and label design for a one-off bottling from a whisky cask that had been gifted to him for opening the Isle of Arran Distillery at Lochranza, back in 1998. 240 bottles of 26-year-old single malt. 150 auctioned off to raise funds for his charity CHAS. Cue the Leith creative department...

The Smart Thinking

A special whisky. An iconic actor. A great cause. This was no ordinary design job. So, we rewrote the script. Literally. 240 times over. The whisky would be called ‘Ewan’s Cut’ (a ‘cut’ or share of whisky for a film star). And the labels were designed like mini film scripts, complete with typewriter font and proper screenplay formatting. But to make each bottle highly desirable at auction, we wrote each label as a unique script, inspired by Ewan’s life and work – and the life of the whisky cask itself.

Ewan Website Logos on Paper copy
Ewan Logo Lineup 1 1

Execution

240 bottles. Each with its own story to tell – covering everything from Star Wars and Trainspotting to Ewan’s stage career and TV appearances. The life of the cask itself plays a supporting role too, reflecting different events over its 26-year journey. Even better, the Leith digital team turned the design idea into a specially created website where users could tap in a number at random and have the scripts typed in front of them. We even turned the design concept into film posters. AND CUT!

Ewans cut copy
Ewan Website Bottle Lineup copy

Results

The moment Ewan’s Cut was launched, we saw a surge of interest worldwide (hey, this is Ewan McGregor we’re talking about after all). The story was picked up by leading advertising and design press, whisky journals and national newspaper titles. And with Whisky Auctioneer on hand to host the online auction of the bottles, it was always going to be a success. Those 150 unique bottles weren't around for long, the final tally of monies raised was truly blockbuster. 

Ewan Website Bottle Crop copy
4k
bottle #001
7k
bids
135k
amount raised for CHAS
Ewan Website Gallery Label copy
Ewan Website Gallery Bottle Pic copy
Ewan Website Gallery Poster 1 copy
Ewan Website Gallery Poster 2 copy

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James bond 3