The Macallan’s Timeless Collections combine storied craftsmanship with forward-thinking design, marking the distillery’s 201-year history with a bold new visual chapter by David Carson
A good whisky captures the spirit of time, while a great one redefines it. As The Macallan celebrates 201 years of single malt mastery this year, it has unveiled a bold new visual identity that expresses this time-honoured legacy, artfully articulated through a new look for the Timeless Collections, one of its signature ranges of single malt whiskies.
Designed to honour the past while embracing the future, the transformation is led by David Carson, a graphic design legend known for pushing creative boundaries across disciplines. Best known for his genre-defying work in Ray Gun magazine and disruptive campaigns for brands like Nike, Pepsi, and Nine Inch Nails, Carson is no stranger to creating visual languages that challenge convention and stir emotion.
With The Macallan, Carson’s design fingerprints first graced the Concept No. 3 in 2020, when he brought his signature typographic dissonance and a layered, collage-heavy aesthetic textural layering to the world of single malt whisky. That collaboration—moody and full of poetic abstraction—helped pave the way for this complete redesign across the Timeless Collections.
This undertaking is more expansive and deeper than anything Carson has previously done with The Macallan. The visually reimagined Timeless Collections represent more than a facelift. Gone is the traditional packaging. In its place stands a sculptural bottle inspired by the sweeping silhouette of The Macallan Distillery’s green roof. A triangular shoulder label nods to the Sherry Triangle in Andalusia, the source of The Macallan’s sherry-seasoned casks. Meanwhile, the new rear label bring the tasting notes to life, while QR codes and anti-counterfeit features connect drinkers to detailed product information and production origins. The entire visual identity is tactile and thoughtful in equal measure and, as always, serves a vital prelude to the whisky within.
While the bottles and cases look striking, their allure goes beyond the cosmetic. The new visual identity distils the essence of The Macallan’s vision, which is to bring together the past, present,
and future in ways that are both recognisable and revolutionary. For a house that has long let its whisky do the talking, this bold visual expression adds much nuance to the conversation.
At the core of this transformation lies The Macallan’s Six Pillars—the Estate, Curiously Small Stills, Exceptional Oak Casks, Sherry Seasoned, Natural Colour, and Mastery—the quiet constants that have shaped the distillery’s character for nearly two centuries. Carson channels these ideals into expressive motifs and compositions where “different elements… find perfect balance on the canvas”, much like the interplay of cask, spirit, and time in each dram.
“Like whisky, design is all about balance,” Carson said in a press statement. “With The Macallan, I wanted to create a visual identity that respects its rich history and encapsulates its forward-thinking spirit. Each detail is a tribute to the mastery behind every dram.”
Three Collections, One Signature
As part of The Macallan’s core offerings, Timeless Collections demonstrate the distillery’s relentless pursuit of quality, nuance, and character. While each collection is rooted in the same foundational craft, all three have evolved over the decades to reflect distinct flavour profiles, cask influences, and visual identities channelled through the transformative power of oak and sherry.
The Double Cask Collection strikes a harmonious balance between two worlds.
American and European oak casks, both seasoned with sherry wine from Jerez de la Frontera, lend the whisky its signature smoothness. Notes of citrus and creamy toffee unfold gently, giving way
to soft spices and the richness of baked fruit as the whisky matures.
The Sherry Oak Collection, on the other hand, is deeper, darker, and more intense. Crafted predominantly from European oak casks, this range is defined by its natural mahogany hue and richly layered character. Expect interwoven flavours of dried fruit, ginger, and warming wood spice. Last but not least, the Colour Collection is a celebration of vibrancy and nuance. Its golden spectrum of hues is drawn from majority American oak casks seasoned with the same Jerez sherry, resulting in a lighter, fresher style of whisky. Younger expression bring brightened notes of citrus and vanilla, while tropical fruit flavours emerge with age.
“The Macallan has never stood still and never will,” says Jaume Ferras, creative director at The Macallan. “This distinctive new identity offers a multitude of visual cues to tell our story, from the sherry seasoning to the American and European oak casks which contribute to the complex taste and flavour profiles in every bottle of The Macallan.”
Ferras’s use of the word ‘story’ is especially telling. Through the redesign, the distillery’s collaboration with Carson seeks to reframe its own time-honoured ethos: to honour craftsmanship
with both respect for tradition and evolution.
Carson, whose work often blurs the line between graphic art and fine art, has proved himself to be an erudite interpreter. And with their newfound disposition, the sculptural bottles and reimagined
labels offer a new perspective on The Macallan, inviting the drinker to look closer, linger longer, and savour more deeply.
This story first appeared in the September 2025 issue. Purchase it as a print or digital copy, or consider subscribing to us here
