Hired Gun’s rebrand for Lighthouse Brewing Company tells stories of the sea, crafting distinct narratives around nautical themes, all with unique personalities, color palettes, and typeface flourishes. With hyper-masculine flourishes(just look at those ripped, Greek gods!) and bright colors that immediately grab your attention, Lighthouse Brewing understands that sometimes a beer design can be fun without detracting from the quality of the brew.
Lighthouse Brewing Company – founded in 1998 – is one of the original Victoria, BC breweries that started the West Coast craft beer movement. After years of brand fragmentation, Hired Guns Creative was tasked with creating a bold, cohesive identity for this well established brewery in order to drum up interest in their beers and grab the attention of younger customers. Some of these beers have a long history and required new energy while still respecting their heritage.
For the refresh of the branding, we drew a new lighthouse icon based on the lighthouse at Race Rocks. The brewery’s Race Rocks Ale is one of their oldest and best-known products and we wanted to pay homage to it. Utilizing the stripes on the lighthouse, the new mark visually centers more within its circular frame. New typography featuring spurs on the centers of each letter catches the eye and allows the mark to work at smaller scales.
For each product we focused on crafting new narratives that blend Nautical themes with the fantastical. Action and adventure are packed on the surface of each can. The use of lighthouses is a motif that is leveraged in a number of the can designs. Unique wordmarks give each beer a clear personality. Hidden in the artwork a small lighthouse keeper is ever present. He looks out from the top of the lighthouse on the Lighthouse Lager and brandishes an axe in defiance on the Poseidon Pale Ale.
After the project launched we received a great testimonial about the project. It didn’t come from the brewery, but from a buyer for a chain of Vancouver Island liquor stores:
~ Jared Brown CWS Liquor Store Operations Manager, Mid Island Co-op
“When I met with the Lighthouse Sales team to go over the rebranding I was instantly excited and willing to work with them on promotions and flyer activity. The artwork was exactly what the brand needed and the consumer wants: a local company, with a local theme that generates a connection to the people and places that make this island and the Lighthouse product great. As a chain buyer, packaging is one of the first things we look at. It can be more important than cost to both myself the consumer. The team at Hired Guns nailed it!”
