Broadhead Brewery
Can Designs & Ads
Project Brief
This was a school project based around creating 2 new beer can designs for a local Ottawa brewery. We were also required to create two video advertise-ments to display the new cans and promote the company; a vertical ratio instagram reel ad, and a square ratio web advertisement. I chose Broadhead Brewery as I liked their brand, but found their can design a bit simple and generic and felt inspired to come up with something more creative. The goal was to create designs that fit and expanded on their brand, while also standing out more on store shelves.
Research
Step 1 was research the brewery to help generate ideas, learn about their branding and story, get an idea of their target audience, and find any unique selling points they had. Pictured here are notes showing my findings, some of their can designs, and website design.
Design 1 Plan
For my first design, I wanted to simply expand on and improve the can they had now. The can design they had for the 8 classic flavours had nice colour changes between flavours but was very simple. I thought it might look more interesting to use gear teeth shapes to separate different areas. I also wanted to incorporate some machine parts to reflect the brands engineering aspect, so I drew a screw and small gear to create a pattern with.
Design 1 Completed
After playing around with the shapes, sizes and spacing of the screw and gear for the pattern, I got it to a place that seemed to work. I found the font on the original cans a bit generic, so I found a font that was a bit more interesting but still easy to read. I received feedback that it was a good update to their current can and a successful redesign.
Design 2 Ideas
For the second design, I wanted to do something new, creative and fresh that was still true to Broadhead Brewerys’ brand. I started researching and looking for inspiration from everywhere as well as other beverage companies. I decided I wanted to incorporate a blueprint as a main focal point, and stage the text large and cut vertically across the can. It was important to call attention to their unique flavours by making them a large focal point.
Design 2 Sketches
I started drawing my raw idea on a template that would fit the can vertically and wrap around perfectly. I roughed in engineering type objects to create a tilted blueprint slash across the can. I made sure to leave room for their logo/name in the upper middle of the illustration for noticeability. I also decided to use their slogan Work hard drink easy along the left side, and the drink name along the right. Displaying the text like this felt sleek, dynamic and modern.
I then refined the blueprint illustration further and made it slightly thinner to provide more room for other elements on the can. Everything was approved and I was given the go ahead to start the next step.
Design 2 Finalized
The next step was to digitally trace my sketch to create a clean blueprint design. I added dashed lines and arrows and tinkered with the various objects locations and scales within the drawing to create a pleasing arrangement. I also added the logo in the middle as a solid shape to stand out among the surrounding outlined objects.
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For the final design, I added a grid behind the blueprint objects to create a proper blueprint look. I also chose colours that reflected Broadheads brand and flavour of each specific can.
Can Designs Conclusion
This portion of the project was successful and went pretty smoothly as I didn’t encounter a lot of hiccups along the way. Peers seemed to be impressed by the new designs and agreed they were an improvement from the old can. The goal of creating a more eye-catching look that honoured what Broadhead Brewery was all about was achieved.
Ad concept 1
The next stage was to create ads that showed off the new cans and promoted the brewery. I wanted the ads to also focus on their 2 unique selling points I found; their 8 unique beer flavours, and that they deliver. These 2 points help them stand out amongst the competition and were important to emphasize.
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After researching their photography, I noticed they liked to stage their products in various outdoor locations. My first ad concept was to simply stage the 2 new cans outside in a forests setting much like their existing photos. Slogans and text would fade in in a relaxing way and encourage viewers to order beer at their website. The idea was to evoke feeling of calmness and tranquility that reflected their slogan Work hard drink easy.
Ad Concepts 2 & 3
I came up with 2 more concepts that leaned more into the machine/engineering aspect of the brand. The first one uses a spinning gear to rotate the new cans by, while the logo and slogan slide into frame. It then zooms in and all the new cans are revealed, with more text encouraging consumers to visit their website to order beer.
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The last concept was similar to the first but instead of a spinning gear introducing the cans, it would be conveyor belt. Ultimately the spinning gear concept was chosen to move forward with and develop further. The feedback was that this concept was the most interesting and the spinning gear comple-mented the logo well.
Rough Version
The first version was created as a vertical aspect ratio video for instagram reels. I used red and green colours to reflect the colours of their original logo. As the cans spun by on top of the gear, they revealed text advertising free delivery, and on the next spin advertising the 8 unique flavours. It ends with their website address and all 8 flavours divided between the 2 designs.
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For the square aspect ratio video advertisement, I felt the spinning gear concept wouldn’t work well at this new size and I wanted to try something a little different. It’s instead a more static ad where the can stays stationary while the design on top changes to show all 8 flavours. The word free also flashes red to emphasize this unique selling point.
Final Results
I received some feedback on the first version that was helpful for the next stage. The colours used were found to make the ads feel like they were advertising toothpaste or something Christmas related. The animations on the vertical ad were also a bit jarring and needed smoothing out. More time was also needed to read the text parts as they were revealed and removed a bit too fast.
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As for the square video version, it felt a bit too static and needed more movement. Emphasizing the free word through a simple colour flash could also be made to be more eye-catching.
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To address these issues, I changed the colours of both ads to more calming blue tones. For the vertical ad I tweaked the animations to be smoother and gave more time for any text to be read. As for the square version, I added circular spinning gears to add movement and compliment the first video ad better. Lastly to emphasize the free part in a more interesting and attention grabbing way, I made a red shimmer move through all the words and also gave them a nice bounce effect.
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Overall this project was deemed a success as it efficiently met its goals of redesigning and elevating a local companies existing beer can designs. The accompanying advertisements were also helpful in promoting the new cans, as well as letting viewers know about Broadhead Brewery and why they should buy their beer.
