Design case study | Johnnie Walker Black Label Keep Walking City Collection

November 21, 2022

Johnnie Walker, owned by Diageo, launches ‘Keep Walking City Collection’, in partnership with Air-Ink. This collection, developed by design agency ‘Bulletproof’, was launched in August 2022, and its first three launches were seen in Warsaw, Bangkok and Madrid.

How does the design express the brand’s values?

The design expresses the brand’s values by championing creative individuals through providing artists with a blank canvas and a platform to showcase their work.

What is innovative or unusual about the pack?

Each bottle’s design is printed using Air-Ink, which is the world’s first ink that’s made out of air pollution. It works by capturing carbon from various air pollution sources like chimneys and car exhausts, refining it to separate the carbon from the rest of the waste and mixing it with a polymer and a solvent to turn it into flowing black rollerball ink.

What technical challenges did you need to overcome to manufacture this pack?

The tech had never been used in this way before so there was a lot of technical development that had to be done. Things like ensuring the ink flowed correctly and that it stuck to the bottle. The bottles are non-porous and ceramic so that was hugely challenging but obviously a crucial one to get right.