Brooklyn Brewery

Born in 1988, Brooklyn Brewery helped define the American craft beer movement — and put Brooklyn on the global map in the process. Its flagship brew, Brooklyn Lager, built the brand’s legacy. But with craft beer now everywhere and branding getting louder by the minute, its classic look risked fading into the background.

We dug into the brewery’s archives and found inspiration in both the brand’s early visual ephemera and the original identity by Milton Glaser. Channeling the energy of a brand that once had nothing to lose, we thickened the letterforms, stripped out the noise, and let the voice do more of the talking. Messaging was direct, a little defiant, and deeply Brooklyn—equal parts hometown pride and side-eye swagger. Iconic design elements from the past were brought forward and reimagined as symbols of the Lager’s long run.

The new system was built to travel — across tap handles, markets, and time zones. A tiered set of assets gave the brand range: local enough for Bed-Stuy bodegas, bold enough for duty-free shelves in Tokyo. From insider winks to big, brash Brooklyn tropes, the brand could flex as needed without losing the thread.

International Campaign

The Brooklyn Lager brand system for the brew's foreign markets is intentionally more borough-focused. Bringing ‘Brooklyn’ to life with more explicit Kings County imagery, intentional indexing into the product and a stronger reliance on literal language let's the lager communicate clearly to those still getting to know Brooklyn Brewery abroad.

Packaging and Marketing

To keep it crispy the Lager system pulls from and then boldly applies the Brewery brand's deconstructed graphic bits. From a refreshed bottle design to dynamic digital ads to superior swag, the system smoothly applies across all media for both domestic and foreign markets.