University students and graphic designers are being asked to help boost efforts to replace Christchurch's earthquake-damaged cathedral by creating a new label for an Oamaru-based whisky collection.
Later this year, the New Zealand Whisky Company will release a 25-year-old single malt whisky, and company chief executive Greg Ramsay said to celebrate the occasion, the company would ask creative designers worldwide to produce the packaging to raise money for charity.
''We're going to be donating the design fee that we would have saved to the Christchurch cathedral restoration.''
Mr Ramsay said his great-uncle was construction foreman when the cathedral was built in the second half of the 19th century.
''I'm really hoping that the fabulous modern interpretation gets the nod. ... it would be a fresh style for a forward-looking community, while paying homage to the site's significant history.''
The Anglican Church has yet to decide whether to rebuild the existing building or build a new cathedral.
Mr Ramsay said the winning label would be released in Paris later this year.
The whisky was distilled in 1988 at the now-defunct Willowbank distillery in Dunedin and matured in the company's Oamaru store.
Its release would make New Zealand only the fourth nation to produce a 25-year-old single malt, he said.
