‘The Brooklyn State of Mind’
Beverage branding specialist Thirst has created a masterbrand identity for Brooklyn Brewery. Having developed a suite of sub-brands each with its own personality, company wanted to consolidate its assets while unifying and leveling up its off-pack visual brand identity globally.
Thirst was tasked with building on the existing identity with a new masterbrand enabling consistency in every market and at every touchpoint. The central concept: everything Brooklyn Brewery does and creates reflects its home borough of Brooklyn which isn’t just a place, but a mindset: “The Brooklyn State of Mind.”
While a complex exercise involving multiple stakeholders, creating the masterbrand was also an exercise in restraint and simplicity. A black frame device featuring the Brooklyn Brewery brand mark is the unifying backdrop for capturing and sharing the spirit of the borough, with different taglines for global use (“This is Brooklyn” globally) and in the US (“Always in the Making”). The frame can showcase brand campaigns, a single sub-brand, or endless combinations of multiple sub-brands as needed, while maintaining a visual consistency.
Thirst revisited and refined all core brand assets and sub-brand assets; to build recognition of the masterbrand, the design system uses the iconic primary logo, originally designed by ‘I Love NY’ graphic designer Milton Glaser when the brand was founded in 1988, wherever possible. Thirst adjusted the secondary logo, the horizontal wordmark, to add impact while retaining visual links with the primary logo.
Thirst introduced new off-pack patterns for each sub-brand, distilled versions of the character and personality of each brand which would allow any combinations of beers to co-exist together, complementing the primary packs without visually competing with one another. Visuals, notes the design firm, can be scaled for all media requirements, and enabling local teams in every market to showcase the brand.
