Often, when addressing an intricate problem the simplest option represents the best solution. However, when creating identities, simplicity is often difficult to achieve. Having a strong identity as the face of your company is critical, but it’s just the starting point of building an enduring brand. Every touchpoint a consumer interacts with represents your brand expression, but it usually starts with the foundation of a smart, simple, and timeless identity that you can build on.

The Ballast Point Flagship Series is the core of their offerings, anchored by Sculpin IPA – the portfolio's highest volume brand. As many brands do, its look and feel had evolved over the years. The approach for this packaging was to use a restrained color palette with accents of gold and sand to accentuate the series' premium nature and help justify its high price point relative to other craft beer space competitors.

As they say, membership has its privileges. In this case, that could mean a Lamborghini on Monday, and a Shelby Cobra on Wednesday. For their daily drivers, members could choose from a fleet of high performance vehicles. With such a lavish offering, the Vulcan Motor Club needed a brand that would resonate with their consumer. The icon itself was inspired by something you’d see as an emblem on the hood of one of their cars. Photography set on rich black backgrounds provided a sexy, sneak peek of the featured automobiles, and a structured typographic grid reflected the precision of the fleet that was available to their customers.

When the founders of Ballast Point parted ways and set forth on a new journey, they needed a brand that looked and felt as confident as their pedigree. The Cutwater, also known as a Black Skimmer, is a long-winged bird that feeds by opening its bill and dropping the long, narrow lower mandible into the water, skimming along until it feel a fish. The logo became an abstracted frontal view of that feeding strategy, and the iconic V motif became a design element that was translated to the cans, cartons, sales materials, and beyond.

White Labs describes themselves at being at the intersection of science, education and craft. They were the first company to develop “pitchable” yeast for the home brewing community – a product that was a game-changer for brewers. Throughout the years they continued to innovate with the introduction of PurePitch, a pitchable yeast that is grown in the very same package that it’s delivered in, which nearly eliminates the possibility of contamination. They are clearly the industry leader in yeast and fermentation, and they needed an identity that looked the part. The solution was a simple illustrated icon that combined their two passions, science and beer.

Over the course of five years, Ballast Point’s family of products grew from less than ten packaged beers to over thirty, so the company developed the Discovery Series to help consumers navigate the portfolio. The beers in this family were lower in alcohol content and more approachable in flavor, making it the perfect consumer introduction to the brand. With a bold new look inspired by the angular shapes of nautical flags, this packaging stood out on the shelf, differentiating this series from the rest of the Ballast Point products.

Qualcomm is a behemoth in the world of tech, but many consumers weren’t familiar with the brand. Unbeknownst to most, their Snapdragon processors were powering many of their favorite devices. This launch campaign was one of the first consumer-direct efforts that was put forward, which laid the groundwork for an ongoing dialog with their customers about why Snapdragon technology was so powerful. The campaign featured a “look inside” the devices, and the magic that was Snapdragon. A detailed brand guidelines was created and distributed globally to all of the partners who developed work for this launch.

As a long time partner of the San Diego Padres, Ballast Point was approached by the Padre organization to create a beer in conjunction with their 50th anniversary. Their long time mascot – the Swingin’ Friar – was the beer's perfect namesake. The packaging and brand system that was developed relied heavily on gold and brown, as the Padres had just announced that they would return to these colors after the 2019 season. San Diego hadn’t seen their team in the gold and brown for nearly 30 years, and the Swinging’ Friar Ale identity system and packaging was the perfect teaser to the new uniforms. The San Diego fans adopted the beer immediately, and within a month of the release, it had grown into Ballast Point's second highest volume beer in San Diego.

Tomme Arthur is the co-founder of Port Brewing Company and founder of The Lost Abbey – one of the most well respected craft beer brands. When he decided to launch his third brand, The Hop Concept, the idea was simple: the brewery would release one beer per quarter named specifically to reflect how the beer tastes. Because aroma greatly influences taste, the Hop Freshener series took all of the guesswork out of what you could expect from your beer. Lemon and Grassy tastes like lemon and grass. For the brand look and feel, the classic “freshener” shape was mimicked by turning the iconic pine tree car freshener into a hop flower paired with a bright, vibrant color palette that  reflected each beer's flavor.

Let’s face it: sometimes a wet-hopped triple IPA with pomegranate and blueberries on nitro is just too damn complicated. As the craft beer landscape grew more competitive and consumer taste was shifting back to more basic offerings, Ballast Point Lager launched to make a statement. Craft brewers can make great tasting light lagers too! Weighing in at a mere 99 calories, this beer was deemed “bright, refreshing and fit for adventure.” Because it was so different from Ballast Point’s standard offerings, the packaging needed to pop. With endless choices on the shelf using heavy illustration, pattern and noisy colors, a simple design would be a breath of fresh air. The can design was inspired by wooden buoys, and the simple palette and horizontal stripes made it an instant stand out. In the sea of craft beer, as it turned out, there’s a better way to lager.

Brewed as a tribute to America’s Finest City, this approachable golden ale was meant to celebrate all things San Diego. The packaging prominently features all of San Diego county's neighborhoods using a bold typographic pattern that became a large part of the brand language. Bright colors and whimsical iconography also played a part in making this beer a special offering. And to top it off, a portion of the sales went to a San Diego entrepreneur fund, which was a perfect way to pay homage to Ballast Point’s founder and San Diego native, Jack White, who started the brewery in 1996.

With summer having the biggest lift on beer sales, Ballast Point decided it was the perfect season to push their largest brand, Sculpin IPA. The "Summer of Sculpin" campaign encouraged consumers to “trade up” and make their summer a special occasion. Sculpin IPA steadily holds a perfect 100 rating on RateBeer, making this trophy beer the ideal pairing for a perfect summer. 

The most limited production runs released by Ballast Point came out of their Trade Street location, a barrel-aging and sour facility located across the street from their main production brewery. The identity for the Trade Street Collection needed to stand alone but still fit into the larger brand portfolio. Metallic screen printed 750mL bottles and limited edition 4-packs were the foundation of the portfolio, and these were complemented by one-off experimental releases. These being the most coveted offerings from Ballast Point, the packaging needed to reflect the products' high-end nature and make them worthy additions to a beer cellar for use on special occasions.

The Morton family opened the first Brigantine on Shelter Island in 1969, with a vision that embraced the beach town lifestyle, a dedication to flavorful food, and a passion for friendly service. When it was time for a brand refresh, the new logo and visual system needed to embrace the nautical roots of the first location, and the franchise up for future expansion. A crisp, clean palette of navy, white and gold paired with a simplified anchor icon was the perfect embellishment to accompany the warm lifestyle photography which prominently featured their greatest asset – employees and customers.

What started out as a small event in one tasting room held on the winter solstice, became “the darkest day of the year” and one of Ballast Point’s most popular annual events nationwide. Victory at Sea is a decadent Imperial Porter that prominently featured a skeleton captain battling a stormy sea – an iconic glimpse of pirate life. Each year, new variations of Victory at Sea were introduced specifically for this day, and patrons would storm the brewery to get their hands on the bounty. To bring this day to life, the brand activation included everything you’d expect in a pirate booty starter kit, from gold coins and bandanas to eye patches and limited edition goblets.

One of the first Ballast Point employees, Yuseff Cherney, always had a passion for spirits. Channeling his inner MacGyver, he used an old fermenter, flipped it upside down, and welded a few parts on here and there. The first batch of rum ever distilled on that Frankenstein system won a gold medal, thus Ballast Point Spirits was born. The brand needed to stand alone as a premium offering but share some of the DNA from its well know predecessor, Ballast Point Brewing Co. The typographic standards and nautical illustrations from Paul Elder formed the perfect bridge to create a brand that looked new to consumer but had a familial feel that resonated with cross drinkers far and wide.

Formally known as Shak-ti, the newly formed Solti needed to set themselves apart in the marketplace. In the organic cold-pressed juice landscape, the vast majority of brands were using plastic packaging. Using a proprietary UV filtration system, Solti packaged their product in glass bottles. Working as a brand consultant in conjunction with 214, a NY based design agency, I helped rename the company and guide the new brand look and feel. Confident and modern, this new identity helped them live up to their freshly coined mantra, “let yourself shine”.

Ballast Point gave consumers a wide variety of ways to interact with their brand. The beer, the food, social media and online engagement, advertising, trucks traveling down the highway, and the people serving up the suds in the tasting room were all part of the experience. Knowing when to shift, when to evolve, and when to stay the course are all part of the equation. Over the years, packaging and beer trends change and people come and go, but the one constant for Ballast Point was having a brand expression built on authenticity and culture.