In late March Japan begins the celebration of the Hanami festival.  This marks the beginning of the cherry blossom season, and Glenfiddich created a limited-edition single malt whiskey called Grand Yozakura for the occasion. This incredibly rare 29-year-old whiskey is a part of their “Grand Series”.  It is also the first scotch to be finished in casks from Awamori, the oldest known distilled spirit in Japan. Only a small proportion of Awamori is aged in oak casks, making these barrels both rare and highly prized.  You can read more about their amazing bottles here:

1: Brainstorming

To honor the release of this unique product, Glenfiddich wanted to hold a giant party in New York City.  And because of the unique ties the product has to Japan they were looking for artwork specific to the country for the event.  Sakura blossoms are a traditional part of origami and the Taro’s Origami Studio team has created numerous cherry trees for display.  It was our work on cherry blossom models and large installations that brought Glenfiddich to our design team.

We spent the next month leading up to the release party working on artwork for their event.  First there were talks about creating an entire origami Sakura tree in the space.  Usually an entire tree takes months to create, so we then discussed recreating the Glenfiddich logo in origami.  The design team went to work and created a new origami stag model.

But then the Taro’s team had the inspired idea of combining both ideas into one spectacular art peice.

2: Designing

The vision was to re-create the Glenfiddich logo out of origami Sakura flowers.  This idea took the strongest parts or either idea and the Glenfiddich team was immediately interested.  But like all large projects, there were budgetary concerns, so we gave them three different versions to choose from.

Option one was with the cheapest, with the flowers growing out of the antlers.

Option two was with the body of the stag being three-dimensional.

And option three was the most expensive and called for the entire logo to be covered in flowers.

After they got a look at the computer renders of the concept, they were so impressed that they rearranged the budget to accommodate for option number three.

3: Production

Once we got the final approval of the model, the Taro’s team of artists got to work hand-folding over three hundred washi Sakura flowers.  After that the Brooklyn team machine-cut a giant logo of the Glenfiddich stag, and sourced the frame and materials needed for the final assembly.  In the end the model was three feet wide by four feet tall and took about a week to fully assemble.  Here of some photos of that process.

4: Installation

After everything was finished we hand-delivered the final piece to the event space in downtown New York City.  The event was a wonderful display of art and craftsmanship and we were proud to be a part of the night.  We were also told after the event that our model was then taken and hung in the corporate headquarters for everyone to enjoy.  Here is a look at the event.