Diageo global design director Jeremy Lindley discusses the newcomers to Johnnie Walker's lineup, how he is addressing the craft trend and the link between the brand's packaging design and its history.

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What are your latest projects for John Walker & Sons?

Our most recent launch is Private Collection 2017, created in collaboration with Force Majeure. Each time we launch a limited edition of 8,888 bottles with a limited distribution. This year we chose to celebrate the impact that wood has on the brand: a reference to casks and our blender’s experimentation with different flavours that wood can impart. To translate this, we opted for a marquetry effect that blends thirty different types of wood, each with a different color and grain. The rigid box, by MW Luxury Packaging, is made of matte premium paper enhanced with varnish and an emboss/deboss effect that gives a subtle definition of different wood grains. The crest and lettering, meanwhile are foil stamped. The bottle is the same model as our King George V and we use the same gold printed label on the neck and molded metal cap. Decorated by Dekor Glass for this year’s bottle, the wood ring effect is printed on the back of the bottle, which shows through the transparent facing, while graphic elements are metallized on the front.

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You can read the full interview in the May edition of Formes de Luxe.