Cascade Brewing has engaged with Murmur Creative to update their brand in 2017. A full label redesign was part of that process and now the branding quality matches the amazing beers. This is a case study on how to elevate your brand.
History
Rose City Label has a very long history with Art Larrance – one of the true Oregon craft beer pioneers. Portland Brewing was founded in 1986
by Art and his high school friend and fellow craft beer legend, Fred Bowman. Read the full story here. Way back in the days of Portland Brewing, we were lucky enough to supply sheetfed, glue applied labels for many of their early beers. We still have a bottle of this Thunderhead Cream Stout in our office; these were truly the beginnings of craft beer in Oregon.
Rebirth as Cascade Brewing
By 1998, Art and his trusted friend Ron Gansberg were pioneering again, starting a small brewery in the basement of the Racoon Lodge on SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway. Their reputation grew for top quality barrel aged sour beers, and again Rose City Label was lucky enough to print labels for the beers they bottled.
Engaging with Murmur Creative
Art’s son Tim Larrance returned to the family business after a successful career with national and international beverage brands. As VP of Sales and Marketing, part of his job was to bring the packaging and branding up the level of the beers. They needed to elevate their brand to keep up with the growing Cascade reputation. This was not an easy process – it is always a balancing act to keep the link to the heritage while moving forward to attract new customers. Luckily, Cascade engaged with Andrew Bolton and the talented team at Murmur Creative. The Murmur team listened and helped Cascade articulate their message and bring the updated brand to life. Thankfully, they were also very good to work with on the printing side. They knew the process and its limitations and maximized every aspect of the label design.
Three Tiers – separate but aligned
Among the many good things Murmur did with the new designs, they built an integrated system to include different beer styles and price points into one cohesive family. The labels are distinct (see below) but with the Cascade branding front and center, it is easy to see that they are all part of one product group.
Maximizing the Medium – Size, Paper, Foil Stamping
The team at Murmur did the research to really understand our printing process and capabilities. This allowed Cascade to get the most impactful label at the most affordable price. The label size was optimized to run most efficiently on our printing press while still providing the desired look on the bottle. The three tiers were separated to ensure the top level products have the special embellishments to set them apart:
- Tier 1 – High Quality Paper, Full Color Printing
- Tier 2 – Premium Paper, Full Color Printing
- Tier 3 – Premium Paper, Full Color Printing, Foil Stamping
By considering the available features early in the design process, Murmur was able to execute Cascade’s vision with no surprises on press. This preparation is what makes Murmur (and Cascade) such a good partner for Rose City Label.
Thank You Cascade and Murmur!
We are privileged to work with many great brands, but few have the total package – great products, great design, and wonderful people making it happen every day. If your product could benefit from a branding facelift in 2018, please call us today. Together with partners like Murmur, we can help you elevate your brand and get your product to pop off the shelf.
Cheers!
