MClean Design

We created The Buccaneer for Plata Wines as a brand that combines the excitement and mystery of pirate mythology with a premium wine in an effort to increase Plata’s presence with exclusive Buccaneer retailer BevMo. A hand drawn brandmark with references to the romantic flourishes, scrolls and stylings from the time period buccaneers sailed the Caribbean in the 17th century combined with authentic pirate symbology instead of tired skull and cross bone clichés help elevate The Buccaneer above the expected. The oversized, menacing black label, slightly muted stamped foil and the glossy blood red flag emphasize The Buccaneer’s heritage and sense of adventure.

Design Panel at ‘Brewbound Craft Beer Session’ Announced

http://www.brewbound.com/news/design-panel-at-brewbound-craft-beer-session-announced

Featured craft brewers include Tomme Arthur of Port Brewing, Benjamin Weiss from The Bruery

As retailers continue to add SKU’s to their shelves and more craft brands emerge into the marketplace, it’s becoming increasingly important that craft brewers separate themselves with creative label designs and innovative packaging.

And while many craft brands have shown tremendous capacity for innovation when it comes to labels and package designs, there are occasions when the ‘home-grown’ feel of the products can seem too ‘home brewed.’

Industry experts agree that the package is essentially a blank canvas for brands to tell their story. A laid-back style is important for some products, but the way that style is portrayed as part of a branding message is important for craft beer companies that want to achieve more.

Brewbound’s Craft Beer Session will offer a design panel that will help craft brewers learn how to tweak their designs so that their inherent creativity can abet, rather than get in the way of, commercial aspirations for their beer. The panel will feature design professionals who have worked across the beer and non-alcoholic beverage industry, as well as notable craft brewers who have achieved success through packaging innovation.

Tomme Arthur from Port/The Lost Abbey and Benjamin Weiss from The Bruery willexplain their brand strategy as it pertains to packaging, label design and marketing. Joining them will be branding experts Ian Mclean and Mark Mitchell who have worked with numerous beverage companies in both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic space.

About the Brewbound Craft Beer Session:

The Brewbound Craft Beer Session is a half-day business conference addressing the topics that most directly impact the decisions craft brewers are faced with as they look to grow their brands. The event focuses on the business side of the craft, offering brewers a unique opportunity to learn and network from industry experts.

I don’t miss the giant starbursts that used to read “10% MORE FREE!” but I hope nobody asks me to design a “NOW WITH FEWER OUNCES” burst anytime soon either.

Consumer Reports recently published an article on a trend of companies trimming ounces out of their packaged goods to combat rising materials and production costs. The article can be found here.

“From toothpaste to tuna fish, hot dogs to hand soap, companies have been shaving ounces and inches from packaged goods for years, usually blaming it on rising costs for ingredients and energy.”

No doubt there are a number of factors that come in to play with these decisions, and they have been happening for some time now. This trend is at least 2 years in the making. “Rightsizing” and other efforts to maximize space and efficiency are common practice these days.However, subtle changes in package size or redesigned packaging meant to hide the reduction are easily missed by even the most diligent consumer. In many cases, the only noticeable difference between “before” and “after” is that tiny net weight statement buried at the bottom. That text can have a more profound impact on a decision to buy a product than all that beautiful artwork.

It will be interesting to see the competition between brand loyalty and value as they battle it out in the marketplace. There are far too many variables to account for, but this is an opportunity to see if a pint really means a pint, to who, and why.

This year, our holiday season looks to be as busy as ever. Somehow, just as most people are planning time away from the office, our little corner of the world heats up.

Currently, based on a certain depth of experience which we are certain is in no way complete, we are aware of three basic variations of the dubiously christened “holiday” project:

1) “Our annual budget is about to be renewed at the first of the year, so let’s get that 250-sku redesign project started over the holidays. Your first invoice will probably be due just about the time our new budget is approved, and we’ll get a jump start on the New Year.”

2) “Our annual budget has a remainder that we need to dump before the end of the year or next year’s budget will be reduced by that exact amount. Let’s go ahead and get that core strategic project going and try to have it finished and billable by December 31st.”

3) “I’m going to be on vacation for the next three weeks, so I’m hoping you can have the project ready and waiting for my signature by the time I return on January 3rd.”

Of course, we love our clients and sincerely appreciate the real business needs that these bah-humbug timelines help to meet. So this isn’t a complaint. It’s a warning:

Call early this year, because holiday hours are running at a premium.

Here’s hoping your holidays are busy – in the best possible way.

As the design team that developed Monster Energy, we get questions all the time from different corners of the market, asking us to relate our success in capturing the energy drink market to, for example, impulse snack food purchases, or high-end car care products.

We always try to provide clear answers, so we take another look at the situation we faced and extrapolate forward. Somehow, despite feeling like we’ve drained that well dry, we continue to learn. Turns out that well is deep, and we have much to say.

Our busy studio schedule has never allowed us the time to actually sit down and pen the book we keep threatening to write – “Creating A Monster” or something equally Frankensteinian – so we thought to write it here, one bite-sized chunk at a time, starting with this, our inaugural post.

Almost a decade after creating Monster Energy, we’ve managed to defy the irrefutable assertion that “the first to market owns the market.” In the noteworthy Al Reis and Jack Trout book 22 Immutable Laws of Branding (1998) their examples are Coke and Pepsi, first-to-market leader and close-second follower, and that’s very convincing. But Monster was fiftieth, so that rule was more than broken, it was sliced, diced, slaughtered, and puréed.

At that point in time, circa 2002, the energy drink category, meaning Red Bull at 75% plus 50 others splitting the last quarter share, was under assault by Coke (KMX, 180, Full Throttle), Pepsi (Amp, MDX), Anheuser-Busch (Sparks, Be), and every other beverage company or newcomer who was already in the market, many of them with unlimited reach and ridiculously magnificent budgets.

All Monster had was hardcore attitude and that green-glowing three-fingered salute. You can actually recognize it upside down curved across the helmet of the latest moto/skater thrill-seeker as he completes his second mid-air rotation. Of course it was designed to slice through clutter, but we’re still kind of surprised.

If we, like Monster’s toothless competitors, didn’t love the brand, we’d feel practically assaulted: It’s regularly on Speed TV, the Dew Tour, X-Games, reality shows, and hard rock concerts. On motocross bikes, skateboards, rally cars, snowboards, jet skis, every kind of helmet, jersey, and Nomex® fire suit. We’ve seen it on eight-year-old kids and sixty-year-old bikers. I’ve seen it on the radio, too, or maybe it just feels that way.

A local high-schooler here in the Bay Area has it tattooed on his chest – backwards. He told us, “I did it myself in the mirror.” That’s all anyone ever wants: Love beyond reason.

Monster Energy actually exceeded Red Bull in retail sales toward the end of 2008, with more room to grow on-premise and overseas where they haven’t even begun to penetrate. So we’ll be seeing it for a long time, now on the world stage.

It’s the perfect case study for building a compelling brand, so stay tuned for more.

Go Monster.