making pigs fly at the whistlepig vault
Every once in a great while, a project lands on our desk that doesn’t just ask for some of what you do, it asks for everything you are.
For the three of us - Molly, Andy & Reese - the WhistlePig Vault in Louisville wasn't just a design job or a build-out. It was an 18-month labor of love that allowed us to stretch every single creative and logistical muscle we have. We often talk about "concept to completion," but rarely do we get to embody it quite like this. We feel incredibly lucky to have found a partner in WhistlePig who trusted us to take the keys to a historic bank and turn it into something completely wild.
The Strategy: Orchestrating the "Whole Hog" Experience
From day one, we knew we couldn’t just design a cool brand house; we had to build a WhistlePig World.
Structuring the Flow: Our first task was experience strategy. We mapped out how a guest moves from the front door to the pig bottle dipping station to the exclusive intimacy of the museum-like vault.
The Collaboration: For a year and a half, we lived and breathed this site. We worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the client team and the General Contractors, translating wild "WOW" ideas into real life brand activations.
The vault: When Pigs (Literally) Fly
We wanted the bar to stop people in their tracks. We got to flex our creative and technical design skills here to create something truly irreverent.
The Grand Bar: We designed the bar back to look like a towering wall of safety deposit boxes, utilizing the massive height of the bank lobby to create a cathedral of whiskey
The Pneumatic Tube System: We asked, "How do we make cocktail service unforgettable?" The answer was a vintage-style pneumatic tube system. We designed and engineered a setup where the Flying Pig Cocktail zips through the air to the guest. It’s technical, it’s whimsical, and it’s pure WhistlePig.
The Tasting Vault: We kept the grit and the weight of the old vault but layered in the luxury of WhistlePig’s rarest liquids. This space allowed us to play with lighting, texture, and mood in a way that contrasts sharply with the bright lobby. It’s the place where the brand’s "Boss Hog" story really comes alive.
WP Custom Lighting: When your mother is known as the one and only "The Shady Lady," you don't grow up looking at lamps the way normal people do - and we can make a lamp out of anything. When we flipped the switch on opening night, that old, dusty bank lobby didn't just brighten up. It woke up.
