“New Look, Same Creek”
Almost a year ago, the team at Neshaminy Creek Brewing set out on a journey on a complete and full rebrand. After a decade of success, building one of the largest distributed craft breweries in Pennsylvania producing close to 20,000 barrels of beer per year, they felt this was necessary as it looked towards the future in an ever-evolving craft beer market.
In an effort to understand what went into this major shift for Neshaminy Creek, we sat down with Kyle Park (Directory of Sales & Marketing at NCBC) and Fried Design Company (who assisted with the brand overhaul) to learn more.
The goal and intent behind the NCBC rebrand were to showcase a more authentic look to who they are today. Shifting from being reliant on one idea or look, even though beer fans may notice some of the original themes carried over. They wanted to branch out and get a more cohesive look together across the cans and the entire brand.
As Kyle shared with us, he undertook an exhausting effort to research marketing and design firms that could bring the companies vision to life. He came across Fried Design Company and after spending time with owner/founder Josh Sullivan the business relationship was born.
Based out of Springfield, MO Fried Design is a complete brand design agency that specializes in “vice branding” with clients in cannabis, alcohol, hospitality, and the lifestyle – bar/restaurant fields. The design firm also has a significant amount of experience in craft beer, which made them the perfect fit for the undertaking.
The expectation is for this to be a full rebrand which will include beer labels, social media, and even the physical brewery and taproom itself. Starting at the beginning of 2022, Fried will be onsite at the brewery finalizing concepts and ideas to redo the entire taproom space.
In an effort to keep the rebrand local Josh and his team had to learn all the minor colloquial details about Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company and its location in PA. This was so the design team could fully understand parts of the brand that were specific to the local community (there are still some in Pennsylvania that couldn’t tell you what “Jawn” is).
So how did a company from Missouri understand the local details about Southeastern Pennsylvania? As Fried’s owner Josh Sullivan shared with us they “took a look at who the target market is, where they are in PA, and what they see in NCBC. We said let’s design things around them. It’s not just throwing art on a can and leaving it, it’s very strategic. Are people going to like the artwork based on their age? Is it going to be inspiring to the sales team and distributor to go sell this beer? We are business problem solvers, we do it through design and illustration.”
As they set out for the rebrand, they both drew some inspiration from the past. They looked at labels and references to the things that had brand equity. In the end, they kept a few items from the past and put a new spin on it. Familiar, but different that would stand out and overall better.
“If you look at the old labels, they were more comic book-like, the new ones are more towards graphic novels. We went with a more pared-down look with clearer messaging for the brewery and beer name. The bolder colors pop, and make these cans stand out more than our previous ones.” – Kyle Park, Director of Sales & Marketing at Neshaminy Creek Brewing
The rebrand just began, but you can expect it to be finalized very shortly. “We will be completely done for the 2022 release beers by May – at least the ones we know of, there are always some surprises added to the schedule. We have 7 core beers, plus a lot of one-off beers throughout the year, so I would say 25-30 labels in total” Park confirmed.
For locals, you will start to see changes in the taproom very shortly. You may have already seen the rebrand through social media posts by the brewery. To continue to keep up with the changes be sure to follow the brewery on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
