They say you’re either a cat person or a dog person and at Pixel, it’s a close call, but we probably have a few more dog lovers than cat lovers among us (only just though). So, when our client Pentland Hills Gin asked if we could help them with a little canine themed charitable work, it really was a no brainer.
The task was to design a “gin dog calendar”, yup, gin and dogs together, what’s not to love?! The idea was that each month of the calendar would highlight one of Scotland’s best, canine loving gin distilleries, in an effort to showcase the country’s best gin producers and the diversity among them.
Why dogs you ask? Well for those that don’t know, Pentland Hills Gin is the gin lab that belongs to a chocolate lab - their chocolate lab to be more precise, Panza. He’s a handsome boy and was a key part of the inspiration that led to creating the calendar in the first place.
For us, the opportunity to work on a creative project like this was a bit of a change, Not only is this the first calendar we’ve designed but it’s also the first time we’ve had so many pictures of dogs to enjoy during work hours!
When it came to deciding which member of the design team would be lucky enough to do the work, that was a no brainer too; Gabriella is not only a dog lover (having grown up with a pet pooch called Dylan herself) but she’s also a keen gin drinker too. In other words, she was the perfect person for the job!
Fun though the project was, we did take the time to think seriously about what the design should be like. In the end, purple was chosen as the main colour for the calendar, giving a well-deserved nod to the colour of the Scottish thistle. A textured paper effect was included in the design as well, to create more of a handmade feel which echoes the sustainability standards Pentland Hills Gin always aspires to.
We had a small nightmare making sure we had the right dates on the right days and even more of challenge getting everything to fit correctly on the page (especially when we realised, we needed six rather than five rows for the month’s that span 5 weekends!). It all came together perfectly in the end though, and of course we had the pooch pictures to help keep us going when the fiddly bits bogged us down.
You can
buy your Scottish gin dog calendar over on the Pentland Hills Gin website today and put a smile on the face of the dog lover, the gin lover or the dog AND gin lover you know,