Twenty years ago, Magnolia opened at the corner of Haight and Masonic Streets in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco. The building is full of rich history, though, as their site explains. “Built in 1903, our building has seen a lot over the years, from its decades as Schumates Pharmacy to its role in the birth of the Haight Ashbury hippie movement in 1964 as the Drugstore Cafe, one of the original hippie hangouts in the neighborhood. In the late 60s, it became the famous Magnolia Thunderpussy’s, named for its proprietress, a larger than life San Francisco legend still talked about today.”
We spoke with Shawn at Gamut in San Francisco, who designed the packaging for this latest release and important milestone for Magnolia’s journey, about designing for a saturated market, trusting your instincts, incorporating heritage and history into packaging, and more.
Gamut: Well before Kevin Landwehr and Dave brought us in to develop the design for the packaging system, a rich palette for us to work from had been brewing for almost 10 years. Our work began with the decision to lead with the core Magnolia Brewing Co. identity to give ourselves a solid visual base to build from as we expand the product line. The identity system has a lot of secondary and tertiary pieces that we’ve brought together so that people can really enjoy the intricacy and love Kevin poured into the identity. For the 6-Pack and Mother Carton we created lots of variation and allowed the branding to flow around the box to catch your eye as a stacked display in-store and encourage you to pick it up and explore its intricacy.
