It’s poetry. It’s all poetry. The logo; the name; the Whiskyjack Rye; the Von Schoultz Vodka; the Prescott White Rye; the Conestoga Gin; and the International Spirits Challenge 2017 bronze medal winning 1000 Islands Moonshine. “The logo itself really has a couple of different components,” explained Laura Bradley, co-founder and co-owner of King’s Lock Craft Distillery in Johnstown, Ontario. “One is obviously the maple leaf. The maple leaf is a very valued part of our collective heritage in Canada. The “crack” in the leaf is actually in the shape of the St. Lawrence River and the inner-leaf on top of the river is a commonly used symbol for organic. Our branding expert is top-notch,” she said with a matter-of- factness that perfectly punctuated my appreciation of a logo that can be easily mistaken for a heraldic symbol. “We went through quite a few names before the design process could even begin,” she continued. “At the end of the day we decided, we realized, that where we are physically located on the land is perpendicular to where the rapids start coming from Lake Ontario heading to the Atlantic – it’s the first obstacle of rapids. It was, depending on which way you were coming from, the first or last point of the locks created, commissioned by the Crown of King George III. So at one point in history, all of the locks in what is now the St. Lawrence Seaway were owned by the King. For us, the essence of the area, its history, and the component that the river played in it all, that was really important.” Yet, the most poetic, the most expressive, the most Romantic element of the distillery’s moniker is in its implications.
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NOVEMBER 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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