In the world of fine spirits, where legacy and craftsmanship converge, a label can serve as a bridge between heritage and modernity. Maze Churchill, rooted in one of England’s most iconic family legacies, was born as a dialogue between two cultures: the elegance of British heritage and the French savoir-faire of Cognac.
When the brand commissioned A&p Design to create the label and packaging system for its debut collection, the challenge was to translate centuries of tradition into a contemporary visual language that could embody authenticity, artistry, and distinction.
The result is a design that not only adorns the bottle but also narrates the essence of Maze Churchill: the artistry of Jeanne Maze, the symbolism of the blue tit, and the refinement of a coat of arms reimagined in gold and light.
In this interview, Jack Churchill reflects on the journey that led Maze Churchill to A&P, the subsequent creative dialogue, and how Antonello and Luana’s experience and sensitivity became the key to unlocking the brand’s soul.
Discover more about the project here: A&p Design for Maze Churchill.
Jack, Maze Churchill has a remarkable family legacy. What was the core idea you wanted the brand to express when you first envisioned it, and what did you feel was missing in the early stages of development?
Thanks, Antonello. It’s an excellent question. Maze Churchill is the conjunction of my parents’ surnames, so it was always going to be important to us as a family that the Maze Churchill brand should express our values – who we are as people.
The decision to launch a private label cognac under our family name was in large part about bringing an unadulterated expression of our land in France to a global audience. Our vineyard is in the heart of Les Borderies, the smallest of cognac’s appellations; the delicate Borderies eau-de-vies we know so well are the result of small-batch artisanal production, the antithesis of industrial-scale spirits production. We had a strong conviction that in a world increasingly dominated by generic mass branding, we could capture in a bottle the essence of hard-to-find excellence: a cognac for anyone looking to celebrate the triumphs that matter in life (no matter how small), or for anyone who believes in uncompromising quality.
In that sense, you can say that Domaine Maze Churchill was relatively purist in conception; we would need a brand that reflected a sense of individuality, of following our own path, and not being afraid to do things differently. Yet, we struggled at the outset to translate this personal vision of Domaine Maze Churchill into a coherent brand identity. We realised that we would need a creative partner to help us achieve this step, but we also knew that it wouldn’t be easy to find the right partner, and that proved to be the case.
When you began collaborating with A&p Design, what led you to choose us as a creative partner, and what were you looking for in our approach? You mentioned that the initial collaboration with another agency didn’t fully capture the essence of Maze Churchill. What do you think was missing in the first attempt? What, on the other hand, made the difference with our work?
After initial consultations with branding agencies in London we felt that the early proposals we received veered towards the corporate and generic. They lacked character and individuality; they were not us. And that led us to look elsewhere.
When my wife Micol, introduced us to you and Luana, we were struck by how natural the process of bringing the brand to life on paper became; your remarkably human touch resonated with us. Early on, you took the time to understand who we were, whereas with other agencies it had seemed more a question of fitting into their portfolio alongside a host of brands with little in common with us. After our initial conversations, you and Luana were able to realise on paper the essence of the Maze Churchill project and as our project gradually came to life through your early work (perfecting font types, sizes, and colours for example), we were excited to see how this would translate into the label designs for our inaugural release, Origine.
Of course, it helped that you and Luana were a pleasure to work with on a personal level!
The development of the label and packaging was creative and symbolic, blending British and French influences, and choosing the right design partner for a brand with such heritage must have been a delicate decision. What convinced you that A&P, with Antonello and Luana’s experience of working with international luxury brands, was the right fit for Maze Churchill?
You make an astute observation. We needed a label and brand aesthetic that would bring to life the French artistic legacy of my mother’s side of the family and the British heritage on my father’s side, while doing so in a way that would inspire anyone coming to Maze Churchill for the first time. It became clear with the initial label designs – as well as the conceptual focus underlying them – that you and Luana were able to produce a sophisticated elegance that was novel and produced a sense of energy; and I have no doubt that here your experience of working with international luxury brands, including fashion houses, played an important role in generating those sparks of creativity we enjoyed so much.
Our project team – Micol, my parents, and I – took pleasure in the intelligence of your work as well as its technical accomplishment. You were able to produce designs which incorporated the more classical French and British aspects of our brand, while introducing a bold and clean Italian aesthetic – which would complement and enhance the cognac inside the bottle without overwhelming it. When it came to your early prototypes for Origine, third-party endorsements through our friends and family network were strong, especially from those professionals who had experience working with brand agencies. By then we already knew that we were on the right track, but if we had had any doubts this would have assuaged them!
Each element of the label, from the vine bud motif to the blue tit, is carefully designed to convey specific meanings. How did this process of collaboration help translate heritage into something truly contemporary?
It’s true that the label of Origine, our inaugural release, is rich in symbolism. And that is deliberately so: the vine bud stands as a symbol of spring and the birth of our project, while the blue tit is the ubiquitous bird of the vines, which we see in our vineyard all year round. These symbols, once united, capture a sense of movement and energy; a synthesis of my mother, Jeanne Maze’s, art works and your and Luana’s imaginations.
We took a great deal of pleasure in navigating with you the intellectual exercise of how to represent the Maze Churchill brand symbolically on the label of Origine. It seemed to us that in the structured process you followed you were rather like an architect filling in the various levels of our brand edifice. The result is striking. Sharp colours (combined with the very best paper from Italy) give a sense of classical modernity, representing our family story in a crisp contemporary style whose undisputed elegance continues to be a source of visual satisfaction to us and our clients.
Looking back at the project, how would you say the design work helped make people see Maze Churchill as a new, credible, and distinctive player in the luxury cognac market?
Our clients have testified to the visual success of origine. Your label design is original, it’s creative, and it’s true to Domaine Maze Churchill; you might say, it’s the pitch perfect accompaniment to the cognac itself, which like your work is authentic and distinctive.
From its meticulous box design to its immediately recognisable label, the visual appeal of Origine has played an important role in helping us establish Domaine Maze Churchill in a saturated cognac market during a downturn for cognac. In spite of these daunting headwinds, we have entered new markets and won over spirits buyers around the world – many of whom will see in your original designs the ideal present for friends and family.
Perhaps most satisfying of all, you have helped us stand out from the crowd from the perspective of winning over first time cognac buyers, individuals who would ordinarily choose a whisky or a tequila because they aren’t familiar with cognac. It’s a refrain we hear repeatedly from our partners, whether wineshops or hotels, and it makes us very proud.
Bio
Jack Churchill is the founder of Maze Churchill, a cognac house that draws on the legacy of one of Britain’s most renowned families. Maze Churchill combines English heritage with French craftsmanship, representing the perfect balance between tradition and innovation. Under Jack’s leadership, the brand has been established as a refined expression of artistry, storytelling, and excellence, serving as a bridge between the past and future of fine spirits.