Diageo discovered a stock of rare, ultra-aged bourbons at their Stitzel-Weller distillery in Shively, Kentucky — bottles that had never been released. The opportunity was clear: create a new high-end brand family called Orphan Barrel, with each expression positioned as a distinct, premium taste experience. At retail, bottles would command $300–$500. The packaging had to earn that.

Diageo engaged Force Majeure NYC to create the visual identity for the collection. The designs they delivered were bold, tactile and deliberately premium — exactly right for the category. What remained was the harder, less visible work: getting those designs off the screen and onto the bottle without losing what made them great.

print-ability™ partnered directly with the Force Majeure team to bridge design and production. We worked through every technical decision that stands between an approved design and a finished package — substrate selection, color accuracy across print runs, foil stamping, embossing, debossing, varnish applications and print process optimization.

Each variant was tested and refined. We know which questions to ask vendors, how to build precision production files and where premium packaging tends to fall apart if no one is watching closely. We were watching closely.

The finished Orphan Barrel packaging held up to everything the design promised. Distinctive on shelf, technically sound in production and consistent across the collection.

Orphan Barrel went on to become a standout in the ultra-premium bourbon category. The upfront production work made that possible.