Old Hillside Bourbon: The Trifecta

Creative Direction • Brand Strategy • Product Photography

Spring 2026

North Carolina

Reposition a Gold Medal small-batch bourbon for a specific target audience
Develop a limited-edition gifting concept built around a defined consumer
Match the visual identity to the quality of the liquid inside
Build a brand world that lives off the bottle, not just on the label
Translate "small batch heritage product" into "a gift she would want to receive."

Old Hillside Bourbon is a craft brand built around storytelling. The Trifecta expression is its flagship: a small-batch bourbon honoring Eliza Carpenter, Sylvia Bishop, and Cheryl White, three Black women trailblazers in horse racing, and Gold Medal winner at the 2025 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

The Trifecta deserved a visual world built with the same care as the liquid in the bottle.
VBG's creative direction reframed the bottle as a limited-edition gifting concept, targeted at women who frequent cigar lounges and would buy this bottle for themselves or receive it as a gift. The strategy ladder ran from product to positioning to ICP to visual execution.

The visual world was built around that target consumer. Wine-red nails. Soft cinematic light. A single Black woman's hand on a crystal rocks glass. A cigar between manicured fingers. The intentional restraint of a red sleeve carried through the lifestyle imagery as a thread back to the women on the label. Cigar smoke against cool backgrounds as the bottle's signature.

The concept that drove every decision:

Don't just sell bourbon. Sell your story.

Strategy by Todd Valentine.

Creative direction by Kimmone Martin.
Product photography by Djouny.

The shot list was structured across three categories: product hero, detail, and lifestyle mockup. Twelve shots planned. Reference imagery and anti-references documented. A target audience defined in writing. Color palette pulled directly from the brand's existing identity. The deliverable was not photography. It was a brand world built around a specific consumer.

"This is very impressive work, thank you for putting this together. The look and feel align perfectly with our branding. We would love to explore opportunities to partner on future project releases and pitch deck designs."
— Courtney Tucker, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Old Hillside Bourbon Company


"This is incredible. I've forwarded it to our marketing department."
— Jesse E. Carpenter, Co-Founder, Old Hillside Bourbon Company


"Man, I'm speechless."
— Jesse E. Carpenter, Co-Founder, Old Hillside Bourbon Company

Most brands do not have a content problem. They have an intentionality problem.

A brand world is the difference between imagery that documents a product and imagery that positions it. The shot list, the target consumer, the styling, and the lighting. Every decision should ladder up to a single concept.

Creative direction is the layer where that thinking happens. The moodboard, the palette, the styling, and the decision to put the product in a specific consumer's hand instead of just photographing it on a table. The thinking before the doing.

This is the layer that separates brands that look like themselves from brands that look like everyone else.