How Notre Dame Students Designed Our Domer Nation Series (And Why We'll Keep Doing It)

By Eric, Head Distiller

I'll be honest – when I first reached out to Notre Dame's design department, I had a completely different project in mind. But somewhere between the initial email and our first meeting, the conversation shifted to our game day bottle concept, and suddenly we had something way more interesting on our hands.

Charlie Florance, Founder of Indiana Whiskey, at ND Graduation

The Indiana Whiskey Company was founded by Notre Dame alumni back in 2011. Our roots are tied to that campus, to South Bend, and to the Fighting Irish tradition that runs deep in this community. So when we started kicking around the idea of creating limited edition bottles that captured the spirit of Notre Dame football – complete with hand-written game scores and custom gold wax seals – it felt right to bring actual Notre Dame students into the creative process.

The Setup: Real Client, Real Stakes

We structured this like an actual client engagement because that's exactly what it was. The design students broke into teams of two, and we laid out a three-step process that mirrored what they'd experience in the real world after graduation.

Step One was the distillery visit. We wanted these students to understand who we are before they started designing for us. They came out to our facility, toured the space, saw our smoked wood tasting room with those big leather couches, checked out our custom copper pot still, and got a sense of our brand personality. We're not a buttoned-up corporate operation, and we needed them to understand that from the start. I walked them through our existing packaging, explained what we were looking for with the Domer Nation series, and gave them the basic guidelines every client gives: stay true to the brand, make it memorable, and don't forget we hand-write scores on these labels every single game day.

It was a typical client meeting, which was exactly the point. These weren't art projects for a bulletin board – these were real designs for real bottles that real people would buy.

Step Two: Rough Drafts and Real Feedback

The second phase was rough draft presentations. This is where things got interesting. Each team came back with their inspiration boards – showing us where they pulled ideas from, what spoke to them about Notre Dame football, and how they translated that into label concepts. Some went bold and graphic. Others leaned traditional. A few surprised us with directions we hadn't considered.

Here's where the dual perspective came into play. The professor evaluated these presentations from an academic standpoint – critiquing composition, concept development, and design principles. I evaluated them as the client and the ultimate decision-maker. Both viewpoints mattered. The students needed to satisfy academic requirements while also creating something that would actually work on a shelf, resonate with Notre Dame fans, and align with our brand identity.

We gave honest feedback. When something wasn't working, we said so. When a concept had potential but needed refinement, we pushed them to explore it further. When someone nailed an element that captured exactly what we were looking for, we told them to run with it. This wasn't about being nice – it was about preparing them for real-world client relationships where feedback is direct and expectations are clear.

Step Three: Final Presentations and The Big Decision

The final presentations brought everything together. The teams took our feedback, refined their concepts, and came back with polished designs ready to pitch. You could feel the energy in the room shift – these students knew this was their shot to see their work on an actual product.

Each presentation was professional, thoughtful, and showed serious growth from the rough draft phase. They'd listened to feedback, made strategic decisions, and crafted designs that honored both Notre Dame's legacy and our whiskey's character.

We made our decision, selected the winning design, and then did what any real client does – we made some tweaks. The final label you see on our Domer Nation bottles is a collaboration between the students' vision and our practical needs as a distillery. It needed to work with hand-written scores. It needed to complement that Notre Dame gold wax seal. It needed to look good whether it was sitting on a tailgate table or a home bar shelf.

Why This Matters (And Why We're Doing It Again)

This partnership isn't charity or community service. It's mutually beneficial in the best possible way.

For the students, they get a tangible piece for their professional portfolios, not a hypothetical project, but an actual product they can point to and say, "I designed that." They leave Notre Dame with real client experience, real feedback from a real business, and a bottle of whiskey with their design on it. That's something worth adding to a portfolio and talking about in job interviews.

For us, we get fresh perspectives from designers who are immersed in Notre Dame culture, understand the passion of Fighting Irish fans, and bring creative energy that pushes us beyond what we might have conceived on our own.

But here's the bigger picture: this program is our way of staying connected to the university where this company owes its roots. Charlie Florance founded The Indiana Whiskey Company as a Notre Dame alumnus with a vision for creating exceptional Indiana whiskey. Bringing students into our creative process every year keeps that connection alive and evolving.

The Plan Going Forward

We're committed to making this an annual tradition. Each year, a new group of Notre Dame design students will have the opportunity to create the next iteration of our Domer Nation series. The labels will evolve, the designs will change, and each graduating class will leave their mark on our bottles.

It's a living program that honors Notre Dame, supports emerging designers, and keeps our brand rooted in the community that shaped us. From the distillery to the gridiron, from student designers to Fighting Irish fans, this is what happens when craftsmanship meets collaboration.

The 2025-2026 Domer Nation series is just the beginning. We can't wait to see what next year's students bring to the table.

Drink Local. Go Irish.