Kiln Distilling makes six spirits in batches of a few hundred bottles, from a gin to a medronho aged in chestnut. Every bottle was different, but the labels were a template with the name swapped — the range looked like a supermarket line, not a small distillery. They also needed labels that a two-person team could apply by hand without wasting stock.

We asked the master distiller to describe each spirit in one gesture, then painted those gestures with house-paint brushes on large sheets and cropped the best stroke for every label. A strict type band at the base keeps the range together. Labels print on textured cotton paper on a single roll with a cutting guide the team can follow by eye.

The labels won 3 gold medals at two international packaging awards, and the range now sits in eight cocktail bars in Lisbon and Porto. Application waste fell to almost nothing. Each new batch gets a fresh stroke from the same brush in an hour, so the shelf keeps changing while the brand stays one family. Bars now ask which stroke the next batch will get.