The rise of craft beer over recent years has not only highlighted the triumph of flavour, taste and expertise over mass-market blandness, but has also made a new audience aware of the unique and artisan approach to marketing and packaging—the craft of visual language.

Pumped, a crowd funded art book from authors Ashley Kollakowski and Andrew Emery, is a  celebration of this aspect of the business, assembling over 100 examples of UK and European design and illustration from independent breweries including Mikkeller, Cloudwater, Fivepoints and many more.

Our brief from Kollakowski and Emery was simple: create a warm and playful visual identity for their campaign, and design rewards for those who pledged to back Pumped.

Working within the crowd funding format we thought it was important to devise a point of recognition—one common thread—for the project, to inspire backers to follow the full campaign. Against the backdrop of a loud and spirited brand language, our own mix of colourful typography and illustration, we created Pablo.

Character suggests story, story inspires confidence. Pablo was our chance to utilize the simple device of character to create a recognisable brand ambassador backers could follow, a device that could easily be transposed onto a range of supporting products, including t-shirts, enamel badges, coasters and, more importantly, limited edition beer.

For more beer related content take a look at how we turned an outdated Yorkshire pub into a contemporary, family friendly venue offering cask ales and locally sourced, home-cooked pub grub.