Graphic Design 2.1: Professional Practice, Project 2: ‘Principles of Branding’ Exercise 2
Exercise 2: How Far is too Far?
For this exercise you will look at the limitations of industry-specific identities. You will then create a proposal for a new company looking to enter an established industry.
Select a very specific niche industry. For example a flower shop, a software company for business invoicing, or a plastics manufacturer. In your selected industry identify the range of brand identities.
Compare and contrast the brand diversity of existing companies in the industry.
What are the extreme ends of the spectrum? Look at the visuals the company creates (logs, promotional materials etc) as well as the language they use (text on their website or social media). For example, does every flower shop include imagery of a flower in the logo?
Consider new or emerging changes in these industries - do the companies that embrace changes present themselves differently from the traditional companies that wish to maintain the status quo? For example, a flower shop that uses drones to deliver flowers is vastly different from any other flower shop. How does this flower shop communicate this to customers?
Analyse how companies at extreme ends of the spectrum communicate their distinction to their customers.
Compile your findings about the industry into a proposal for a new company launching in this same industry. The audience for this proposal is a group of senior investors interested in launching a new business in this industry. Focus on how they can either differentiate themselves or fit in with the industry norms through their visual identity. Your proposal should include both visual research (for example mood boards) and written rationale. The proposal can take the form of a report or presentation.
Your proposal should include:
What visuals/media should the new company use?
How will customers know what they are signing up for?
What will need to be communicated to ensure the brand promise is clear? For example, do customers realise what they sign up for when they order drone-delivered flowers?
Blender beer is a new craft beer company by ‘Left Handed Giant’ brewing company. I was initially attracted to their logo, the typeface they use is completely different to most beer brands, being lower case, sans serfif Swiss style. This gives a very modern feel to the beer company, which ties into their product which combines fruits/natural flavours with beer.
For this exercise I decided to research craft beer/alcohol companies. There are various styled craft beer companies, some with more traditional branding and others being veery abstract. I began my research looking at the top rated breweries and beer companies in the UK, then globally.
By branding themselves in this way, they do not appeal to the average beer or lager drinker but deliberately position themselves to a more alternative market. They use see through bottles or brightly coloured cans to again push forwards their ‘blend’ branding, making them stand out further. This could be really good branding allowing them to be individual in a saturated market or may place them in a position where they are more of a novelty product, but being a novelty product may even be their goal.
Emperor’s Brewery is a Nano brewery based in Coalville, Leicestershire, local to me. Their branding is extremely niche, focusing on fans of the Star Wars franchise.
Their logo and name itself is a character from the Star Wars films, the logo is a stylised portrait of this character with ‘Emperor’s brewery…you are not a Jedi yet’ surrounding it. The very niche branding immediately attracts the Star Wars fan base and immediately becomes ‘the beer’ of that niche. People travel from all around the country to visit the micro brewery, purchasing merchandise and packs of the product themselves. Instead of trying to compete against huge beer companies with massive budgets, this brewery has capitalised from their interests and passion. The passion is shown via their social media, with simple photos of the brewery owner drinking with customers, this adds to a friendly, inviting feel, perfect for the niche they are targeted towards.
SCHRAMM’S MEAD
Dolphin Brewery is based in Reading, UK and produces batches of beers annually. They are vegan beers and each batch are individual ‘fruity and sour, dry and drinkable, aged and characterful’. Their logo is simple and easy to look at, a stylised illustration of a dolphin. This makes the company seem friendly and almost safe. The simple black and white colours and use of pastels within their bottle branding backs up their friendly feel.
The imagery paired with the language they use within their promotional material, such as their social media and on their website is again friendly and inviting. They use words such as ‘honest’ and ‘characterful’ paired with images of the owners enjoying drinking or running their brewery which is endearing.
Schramm’s Mead is a company based in Detroit, USA. This company stood out to me originally because of their gothic style branding. Their logo and name is written in a gothic style serif typeface, which makes it seem old and has a darker feel.
The artwork shown on the labels is really interesting, the illustrations again have a gothic style, using just black and white. These illustrations paired with the typefaces really set apart the bottles from other brands in a line up. They have used drawings from their children, including handprints for illustrations on bottles commemorating their birthdays, something I haven’t seen before which definitely has a fun appeal to a customer.
The more personal approach sets them aside from national and global brands of beer, allowing them to capitalise on their niche and gather a small but loyal following of people who await the beers to be released annually. The small batch releases also force people who wait and become excited to purchase more, it also promotes their local brewery and for people to go there in person.
Low Key Barrel Project is based out of Kent, UK. Their name and branding are almost oxymoronic, their name being ‘Low Key’ but their
branding is full of imagery, often colour and psychedelic-like patterns and illustrations. Their logo appears low brow and handmade giving off a calm and ‘no effort’ feeling but in a positive way. The logo makes you feel relaxed but the illustrations on the bottles and cans is of a more gothic, dark style. The combination is very interesting as it seems to not make sense but is endearing.
The language used on the products is also gothic and dark, for example towards the bottom of the illustration on one of their cans ‘The saviour of the broken, the beaten and the damned’ is written. This is quite dark but has a playful feel to it, this paired with their logo and colours used is more endearing and fun than gothic. Their different and interesting branding sets them aside from other companies, they have a fun, gothic feel and would attract a specific audience but also not be off putting for a general consumer.
Beavertown is a brewery from London, their name is an old cockney term for the town it is from ‘De Beauvoir’. Beavertown is a more well known craft beer company, thanks to Heineken investing in them in 2018.
Beavertown’s branding sets them apart. Surreal cartoon style illustrations are at the forefront of the brands identity. The skull logo is immediately recognisable and their glasses are very colourful with further illustrations of aliens, skull characters and fun landscapes.
Beavertown also sells merchandise, expanding their brand through visuals. Some of their merchandise includes their brand name, while some doesn’t. They are rooting themselves as a brand who uses a certain style of illustration and a skull, which sets them apart from other companies.
Their branding seems as if it should not be for a beer company at all, this is part of the appeal. Even their website and social media is full of cartoon strips and bright colours. The names of the products further follow this surreal alien-like style having names such as ‘Gamma Ray’ and ‘Lazer Crush’.
I noted some ideas and brief marketing strategies for my own craft beer company. I decided that a niche brand would be best to create, in order to capture a small loyal customer base as opposed to create a general style craft beer which everyone could enjoy and going against larger established brands.
The first favourite idea would be local craft beer called ‘Lion Lager’ based off Leicesters Rugby team, targeted towards fans of the team and general rugby fans.
The second idea was ‘Brush and Barrel’ a craft beer inspired by art and historical artists, targeted at art lovers.
Brush and Barrel Proposal:
‘Brush and Barrel- The Artisanal Brewery’ aims to bring together the worlds of art and brewing, offering unique and inspired craft beers that celebrate creativity and craftsmanship using quality ingredients, sourced from local suppliers, ensuring the highest standards of taste and quality in every batch.
Brush and Barrel takes inspiration from all forms of art, from sculptures to abstract paintings, modern to historical. Our mission is to craft exceptional beers that ignite the senses and spark imagination, paying homage to artists and art while growing a community of art and beer enthusiasts.
Brush and Barrel aims to brew limited ranges of craft beers with each beers taste being unique, inspired by a particular piece of art or artist. The visual appeal of our beer cans aims to be individual and interesting, famous artworks will be adapted by our in house artists and made playful in a Dadaist style (see visual references), being shown across the beer can and throughout our brand identity. Serious art can be made fun using anecdotes and jokes, surrounded by colours taken from original paintings, engaging customers in an alternative way.
Our abstract style will be what sets us apart from competition with our logo and main branding being monochromatic in a hand drawn style, using splashes of vibrant colours in abstract shapes, nothing expected from a beer brand.
Brush and Barrel markets towards art lovers in an edgy and fun way. Artworks will be adapted in an almost ‘meme-like’ fashion and promoted via social media in this form. The aim would be to have large art fan pages promote our social media pages, in turn creating a community to sell our craft beers too. Our social media would be focused on creating an entertaining brand involving beer, art, music and promoting in-person community focused experiences.
Extra limited craft beer ranges would be created, inspired by popular artists work and promoted by them, selling our products to their own audiences. These extra limited craft beers can be sold at galleries, music events and alternative bars alongside merchandise of the brand, adapting our packaging designs for use on an item of clothing. These extra limited ranges inspired by current popular artists will open up new people to the brand and promote other products such as a range of beers inspired by historical art.
