Highland Park Unveils Different by Nature Campaign & New Brand Direction

HIGHLAND PARK UNVEILS A BOLD NEW LOOK WITH A CAMPAIGN STARRING ORKNEY LOCALS  

• Highland Park is stepping into a new era with a reinvigorated identity, brand world and packaging 

• Including the release of a new campaign, starring Orkney locals who embody Highland Park’s “different by nature” approach to whisky and to life  

• The campaign accompanies the launch of a new packaging design, inspired by Orkney’s nature, culture and creativity.  

Wednesday 16 April 2025—Highland Park, the award-winning Single Malt Scotch whisky distillery, founded in Kirkwall in 1798, debuts a new campaign, reinvigorated identity, brand world and packaging to mark the company’s step into a new era.  

Inspired by the unique Orkney provenance that makes Highland Park different by nature, the bold new look celebrates the creativity, originality and natural beauty of Orkney, the brand’s island home. 

Welcome to Our Island World  

To mark the launch of the new brand world, Highland Park has released a new campaign featuring a cast of real-life Orkney local legends who, in their creative, original and unexpected approach to life, represent the brand’s uniquely different approach to whisky making.  

Shot in Orkney by photographer Tom Johnson, and accompanied by a film directed by Sam Johnson, the campaign follows these local legends across key landmarks in Orkney that inspire Highland Park's whisky making process. Scenes include shots from the Highland Park distillery itself and the heather-strewn landscape of Hobbister Moor, where the brand responsibly sources the unique, heather-infused peat that gives Highland Park whisky its distinctive hint of aromatic smoke.  

The ensemble cast features local legend Phylida Wright, Highland Park warehouse operator Gary Skea, farmer and ecologist Noel Thomson and artists Louise Barrington and Megumi Barrington. Together, they showcase the dynamic, multifaceted Orkney that's a daily inspiration to Highland Park: a place of friendship, creative craft and sustainable innovation. Watch the brand film here. 

Paul Condron, Brand Director, Highland Park commented: “Highland Park has always been an incredibly special whisky, but Orkney is what makes it special. In this campaign, we’re paying tribute to our Orkney roots, but also setting a tone for the future, embracing the very real charm and originality of the place we are lucky enough to call home—and which gives us a naturally different approach to whisky and to life.”  

More Orkney Than Ever 

The campaign is accompanied by new, reinvigorated packaging designs for Highland Park’s core products, inspired by Orkney’s culture of creative craft and awe-inspiring natural beauty.  

Currently being rolled out across Highland Park’s classic range (12 Year Old, 15 Year Old, 18 Year Old) and travel retail editions (Land of Orkney 14 Year Old, Sea of Orkney 16 Year old, Sky of Orkney 18 Year Old) the new packaging design pays tribute to Orkney’s ethereal light and invigorating climate in its fresh, bright and contemporary colour palette. 

The packaging also nods to the unique flavour profile of Orkney peat smoke through heather-flecked labels visible on the cartons, alongside a refreshed Highland Park logo. Meanwhile, Highland Park’s dedication to craft and creativity is represented through a subtle wood-grain pattern inspired by its dedication to using the finest sherry-seasoned oak casks. 

Beyond the outer packaging, Highland Park’s distinctive square-shaped glass bottle has been simplified to allow the natural colour of the whisky, which derives entirely from the cask, to shine through. “Product of Orkney” has also been proudly cut into the glass to celebrate the whisky’s unique provenance. 

“different by nature” 

The campaign and updated packaging mark a new era for Highland Park, in which the brand is celebrating the uniqueness of its Orkney provenance and the distinctive character that it brings to its whisky—all encompassed by Highland Park’s new strapline, different by nature.   

Key to this is the influence of the local heathered peat that Highland Park uses to smoke its malt, sourced from Hobbister Moor, just a few miles down the road from the Highland Park distillery in Kirkwall.  

This peat, infused with aromatic heather rather than woody tree roots, gives Highland Park its distinctive, subtle hint of aromatic smoke—resulting in a whisky that is not only characterfully complex and expressively deep, but has a truly, naturally different flavour that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world.  

The new campaign, packaging and different by nature brand world begin to roll out globally in April 2024.  

ENDS 

About our campaign stars: 

The “Welcome to our Island World” campaign stars are all Orkney locals, scouted across the 20 inhabited islands of the Northern Scottish archipelago. 

Phylida Wright is a grandmother of eight who has lived in Orkney for over 50 years—during which time she’s become a fixture of the community and an occasional star of local theatre productions. She loves her home for the tranquillity and nature—as well as the smell of smoked barley that drifts across the landscape from the Highland Park distillery. But, she says, one of Orkney’s other great strengths is its unpretentious attitude—which encourages people to be themselves.  

“In Orkney, you’re taken for what you are. It doesn’t matter what you are or what you do. You’re just there. There’s a freedom to be human.” — Phylida Wright 

Gary Skea has lived in Orkney all his life and worked for the past five years in the cooperage at the Highland Park distillery in Kirkwall. As a warehouse operator, He works to fill casks with new make spirit and safely stow them for aging. But, like most Orcadians, he has a couple of side hustles too, and is both a football coach and a player for local team Rendall FC. He puts Highland Park’s unique flavour down to the unique character of the local peat, but also the local pride of the people that make it. 

“There’s a little bit of passion that goes into the job. It’s from Orkney, from where we’re from, so you’re wanting it to be the best possible. To show that what we do is special.”— Gary Skea 

Louise Barrington, an Orkney native and Megumi Barrington, originally from Osaka, Japan, are artists, sisters-in-law and frequent collaborators. Louise’s work, which includes sculpture, textiles and filmmaking, is inspired by the shifting patterns of nature in her island home. Megumi, meanwhile, is interested in bringing together traditional Japanese printing techniques and the local craft culture. Though both have worked and studied across the globe, Orkney holds a special fascination for them, thanks both to its ever-changing natural environment and its vibrant creative community.  

“I’m looking through Orkney to see the wider world.”— Louise Barrington 

“There are little miracles everywhere here. You just have to be aware.”— Megumi Barrington 

Noel Thomson was born on the island of Hoy, but is now the only resident of Fara, one of the roughly 70 islands that make up the Orkney Archipelago. There—when he isn’t simply soaking up the solitude with some good records and good whisky—he looks after a flock of sheep and works to regenerate the island’s landscape and ecosystems. It’s only now and then, when he needs supplies, that he’ll hop across the water on his rib boat. But he’s far from isolated, even on his own island—in fact, he says, one of the most special things about Orcadians is their convivial nature.  

“I get visitors that come by boat.  It always confounds me when I go anywhere else. “You can just drop in on somebody here. You don’t need an appointment.”— Noel Thomson 

About Highland Park:  

Highland Park was founded in 1798 in Kirkwall, Orkney, by local church beadle and part-time whisky smuggler Magnus “Mansie” Eunson. Over 200 years later, we’re still making whisky on the same site in Kirkwall, Orkney—and still following Mansie’s example by doing it our own way.  

Our award-winning whisky is renowned for its unique flavour, characterfully complex, and expressively deep, which finely balances sweetness of sherry-seasoned oak cask maturation with a subtle hint of smoke from Orkney’s heather-infused peat. Highland Park 18 Year Old has been named “Best Spirit in the World” on multiple occasions by American whisky expert. F Paul Pacult. 

Highland Park’s Orkney provenance is what makes it different by nature. Far from the mainland and far from the mainstream, we continue to be inspired by our island home’s awe-inspiring landscapes, temperate climate and creative culture—all of which informs the way we combine craft and creativity to make whiskies that can’t be replicated anywhere else on earth.