When Gary Fish founded Deschutes Brewery 30 years ago, less than 100 craft breweries dotted the landscape. Today there is a huge increase in competition, along with slowing overall consumption trends, which has created an inflection point, making growth difficult and innovation essential. While the category is flooded with craft brewers who have embraced quirky, whimsical branding, Deschutes decided to go simple and bold to recapture the market and appeal to millennials unfamiliar with Deschutes.
Says Simon Thorneycroft, Founder/CEO of San Francisco-based Perspective: Branding, the agency tapped for the rebrand, “We saw an opportunity to create clarity at the shelf by putting the brand and style first, and then layering a bit of mystery through these hidden stories. These begin on the paperboard carriers with characters and illustrations that continue on the bottles… Elements of these stories start on one product, overlap, and continue onto the next product on shelf,” adds Thorneycroft The Perspectives team also shortened the name on the packaging to just Deschutes, which gives it a bigger and bolder presence. The new packaging will continue to roll out throughout 2019.
