As a generations old, family-run business, J. W. Lees are always seeking to reinvent their most famous beverages, through the development of special edition batches and collections made in collaboration with celebrities. The Manchester based brewery often has to one up itself to draw in more customers, which seemed to be a particularly difficult task in regard to creating a new cask ale, a task which had to be addressed through branding, packaging and promotional advertising.
Upon a wider review of drinking habits, you might find that cask ale is unpopular, very few people drink it, even less know about it, especially among the younger generations of drinkers. However, this doesn't make cask ale unremarkable, it makes it mysterious.
A mysterious drink is just as marketable as an infamous one, the challenge of this project was to produce packaging and promotional materials so interesting and alluring that it convinces young adults at a bar or pub to buy a drink that they have probably never heard of or tried before.
Promotional materials developed for the cask ale are comprised of three posters to be displayed in bars and pubs, as well as a small social media campaign, for which two preliminary designs were created. All of the designs followed an illustrative theme, for which a unique, stylised font was made to be used on the "Cask Ale" mark. A bold colour palette was produced for the designs, using dark blues alongside bright pinks and red, complimenting the dark atmosphere of bars and clubs at night, while also portraying the same theme.
