Derrick A Riley

Celebrating the history and resurrection of a liquor brand over 100 years in the making, J. Rieger & Co. commissioned DI to create an exhibit showcasing their history through artifacts, while detailing their four core liquors in production.

Built in a restored beer bottling plant in Kansas City’s East Bottoms district, the exhibit features stories and history of the original namesake of Jacob Rieger. Telling the history of the Heim Brewing company and its buildings was equally important, as they included some of the first German & Belgian settlers in the region that lead to Kansas City’s colloquial name of “The Paris of the Plains.”

Four vignettes provide a brief overview of their core products: whiskey, gin, vodka, and amaro. With interactive elements allowing guests to smell the various ingredients and aromatics, these vignettes serve as brief showcases to the products being distilled when guests complete a full tour of the distillery.

Exhibits were designed with modular frames, creating a series of walled areas within the larger space. Many feature large oak exhibit cases for displaying artifacts the Rieger family had acquired to piece together their history. Narrative is presented using flame-polished acrylic panels. Small artifacts and photos are secured directly to the panels, which are suspended using a series of custom embossed leather straps, made by local Kansas City company Foxtrot Supply Co.

Design: Derrick Riley & Lyndee Trost
Content: Elly Miles & Ian Spaeth
Creative Direction: Jeremy Williams
Photography: Derrick Riley
Historian: Cyd Millstein
Architect: GastingerWalker&
Fabrication: Dimensional Innovations