Creating a Brand Identity You Can Easily Expand

In this piece for design blog identitydesigned.com, Greg Jewett of Ho Chi Minh-based Rice Creative chronicles the process of visually branding a new business through his work for East Lake Brewery and Taproom in Minneapolis. What's so interesting about this article, other than the fact that it features some seriously great design, is that Jewett had to seek to create a broad brand identity for a new business that could expand even further, and still make it uniform enough that the viewer can tell that it is all a part of the same brand.

It is also interesting to see all of the different media that East Lake Brewery wanted to incorporate into its brand identity (stamps, bottles, t-shirts, etc.). This is an excellent example of design creating a personality for a brand, long before the customer even tastes the beer. Take a look at the process, from sketching to completion, of making a brand into someone that you would want to know.

On Identity Designed's website, they explain of the work:

"We soon took note of the rich cultural heritage of the Eastlake Brewery neighborhood. Ryan let us know that he believed his establishment would be frequented by a rotating cast of local characters, and because Eastlake is a small and local business, with success hinging on the quality of the customer experience over anything else, we decided it wasn’t so important to have overly strict and uniform communications, but better to come up with something memorable and fun. This inspired us to create a set of unique characters to represent the community as well as the eclectic brews."

Read the full Eastlake Brewery branding story here along with tons of great photos showing the process from conception to execution.