Female-powered distillery gets ‘striking’ new brand identity
By Georgie CollinsNorwegian distillery Feddie, which is backed by more than 1,100 female investors, has been given a fresh look that highlights its feminist brand values.

Feddie Ocean Distillery is located just off Norway’s west coast on the island of Fedje. Named after its island home, the distillery produces gin, vodka, aquavit and single malt whisky, the latter of which is made using a hybrid still.
It was founded by Anne Koppang in 2019 with the aim of empowering women in an investment world where 80% of the stock market’s value is controlled by men. It achieves this by allowing only women to invest in the brand. So far, more than 1,100 women have joined the cause.
All of the distillery’s investors are offered digital beginner courses in investing. The brand also organises networking events, bar visits, tastings, investor weekends on Fedje, and gin and whisky festival visits.
“We’re all about sharing knowledge and building our investor network, so that ideas and business partnerships can flourish,” the brand says on its website.

Feddie also aims to respectfully contribute to the resilience and prosperity of the island that gives it its name.
To highlight this ethos and the company’s values, the distillery enlisted the help of Edinburgh-based creative agency Contagious, providing its team with a brief to design the brand’s packaging. However, the agency wanted to push it further. “We knew this wasn’t just about packaging,” said James Hartigan, creative director at Contagious. “It was an opportunity to build a brand that could challenge the industry. Yes, Feddie makes great whisky, but its true point of difference is its story of financial empowerment, community focus, and cultural change.”
As such, the agency sought to craft a new brand identity – alongside a new bottle design – that is ‘as intentional and fearless as the women who drive it’, all of which sits under the brand’s umbrella campaign, ‘Powered by Women’.
What emerged was a full strategic and visual transformation – from purpose-led brand foundations to tone of voice and identity.
Powered by Women
“Feddie is doing something truly different, brave, and progressive,” explained Hartigan. “From the outset, we avoided the whisky clichés – no ornate stoppers, no woodcut illustrations, no faux signatures, or superfluous outer packaging. We built a brand first, then designed a bottle that quietly but powerfully embodies what ‘Powered by Women’ really means.”
The agency created a minimalist bottle that honours the distillery’s female investors by featuring 751 embossed dots and 521 dashes – one for every female investor and island inhabitant at launch.
Together, they form a flowing, wave-like motif that symbolises both the energy behind the business and the coastal landscape that anchors it.

However, Contagious noted that the dots and dashes are more than symbolic – they are built into the mould and will be updated each time the bottle design is refreshed, ensuring it evolves as the community grows.
“Embedding the scale and scope of the cause into the bottle was daunting creatively,” explained Hartigan. “But once we hit on the idea of it evolving, it felt inevitable. Each bottle becomes a physical marker of the movement’s progress.”
The bottle includes no cork, outer packaging, or unnecessary embellishment. The lightweight 450g recycled glass bottle embraces a ‘pared-back Nordic style’, which is ‘subtle in form and bold in ethos’.
“There’s an unwritten rule in premium whisky that heavier bottles signal higher quality,” Hartigan said. “We wanted to flip that. This bottle proves lightweight design can still be premium – and purposeful.”
Lighter glass has resulted in a lower carbon footprint, while the aluminium screw cap ensures easier recycling. Nothing has been added unless it serves a clear purpose.
While the bottle may be the most visible touchpoint, it’s underpinned by deep work around values, audience and vision – an alignment that resonated with the Feddie team.
“When we revealed the concept, it was emotional,” Hartigan said. “There were tears. Founder Anne and then-CEO Martin Hallberg felt we had finally brought to life what they’d long imagined.”
Inclusive values
Working as a male creative leading a project rooted in female empowerment, Hartigan recognised the responsibility and weight of the task. “We were incredibly mindful not to project a male view of what women might want. We leaned heavily on the women in our team and network. Just as Feddie is powered by women, but made for everyone, our goal was never to design for women – it was to design with them.”

This approach mirrored Feddie’s own inclusive, transparent, values-led mission.
While the company has 100% female investors, 4% of its shareholders are male, as the distillery’s male team members also own shares in the company.
“This isn’t about excluding men – it’s about rebalancing,” said Hartigan. “Feddie proves that when women lead and design follows purpose, you can create something truly different.”
Aina Lemoen Lunde, Feddie’s CEO, who has worked with brands including Coca-Cola and Ikea, agreed: “It was a big challenge and the brand world Contagious produced is really quite amazing. It’ll be exciting to see how the message spreads when we can talk more openly about it.”
Launched in Norway in late 2023, the inaugural Feddie whisky sold out within two weeks – despite the constraints of Norway’s tightly regulated alcohol market.
It became the country’s best-selling malt whisky in the lead up to Christmas, outselling all other Nordic whiskies combined.
Feddie launched in the UK at the London Whisky Show at the end of September. It is hoped the partnership with Contagious will provide a strong foundation for a story ‘bottled for the long term’.
Feddie was one of the whiskies that made up Woven’s Experience N.20 Friends in the North blend.
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