Raise a Glass to Craft

The Lake Coun­ty Liba­tion Trail was cre­at­ed to high­light the region’s grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of craft brew­eries, dis­til­leries, and winer­ies — a net­work of inde­pen­dent mak­ers that had emerged across the coun­ty but lacked a shared identity.

“Raise a Glass to Craft” posi­tioned these pro­duc­ers as a col­lec­tive des­ti­na­tion: not a sin­gle venue, but a trail of places to vis­it, taste, and dis­cov­er. The pro­gram launched with a sim­ple set of arti­facts — map, sig­nage, pass­port, and cam­paign mate­ri­als — designed to encour­age explo­ration across mul­ti­ple stops while rein­forc­ing a uni­fied presence.

Over time the trail expand­ed to near­ly thir­ty mem­bers, and the iden­ti­ty extend­ed into a durable sys­tem: print­ed guides dis­trib­uted through par­tic­i­pat­ing loca­tions, mem­ber bar­rel-head mark­ers, and ongo­ing pro­mo­tion­al mate­ri­als tied to sea­son­al events and the county’s broad­er food and bev­er­age pro­gram­ming. The trail also became a cen­tral fea­ture of the annu­al Fla­vor Fes­ti­val, embed­ding it with­in the region’s cul­tur­al calendar.

More than a cam­paign, the Liba­tion Trail estab­lished a last­ing frame­work for the county’s craft com­mu­ni­ty — a shared mark­er of place, par­tic­i­pa­tion, and local production.

Selected Work