Inniskillin Rebrand

Founded by Karl Kaiser and Donald Ziraldo in 1975, Inniskillin is Canada’s original estate winery and industry pioneer. Established in Niagara On The Lake, the name is derived from the famous Irish regiment, the Inniskilling Fusiliers, and rooted in a history of making the impossible, possible. The now-iconic brand had accomplished the unthinkable bringing Canada to the top of the wine world and was now ready to tell its rich story with the swagger it deserved.

Leveraging their newly developed brand positioning ‘Makers of the Impossible,’ Jacknife was tasked with freshening up the brand to appeal to young wine enthusiasts and shift its perception to a more premium, modern and recognizable offering. Looking for ways to take every experience to the next level and share it with those who appreciate it, our target audience’s choice of wine reflected their attitude, and the new branding needed to as well.

As a Canadian household brand, Inniskillin’s iconic emblem held equity and needed to be carefully considered from the start, which meant rigorous design exploration and development to compare a wide selection of potential concepts. Ultimately, we modernized and simplified the mark through subtle tweaks and refinement, intentionally making it the brand’s hero while remaining connected to its original essence.

Our team then went through an extensive packaging hierarchy/architecture exercise to rethink Inniskillin’s collection of world-renowned, award-winning VQA table wines and icewine (including six tiers and multiple sub-tiers). Experimenting with bold colour palettes and premium finishes, we pushed traditional conventions within the category ultimately differentiating the tiers from each other​—and ​the competition. We also created copy for each label as a discoverable element to help tell the story of the progressive, artisanal winemakers behind the product.

As the portfolio continues to roll out across Canada, Jacknife has been busy rethinking the Inniskillin estate and retail experience, bringing the brand promise to life and creating a must-stop destination in the Niagara region.