Bold and bubbly

 

Hard seltzers were not a revolutionary idea when New Belgium Brewing Company came to Enlisted. But they weren’t looking to create a copycat. Their product presented the opportunity to stand out in a field of clear beverages with a crisp, colorful libation made from real fruit juice and a brand personality that begged to be taken home.

Our biggest challenge was to create a presence that stood out on the shelf while remaining true to the premium nature of the New Belgium brand. We needed to temper the cheeky irreverence we were conveying with age-appropriate graphics and product descriptors.

 

 

Our design team had fun exploring concepts that ranged from the ridiculous to the refined, creating several territories of possible solutions. Patterns! Typefaces! Color! In the end, we focused on fruit, since that is a key product differentiator and jumping off point for highlighting flavor profiles.

An idea that grew legs–almost literally–was that of mascots. This became a great way to personify the brand so it would come alive both on and off the package . We partnered with a local tattoo artist to develop those characters and icons that you see on packaging for the three original flavors: Tropical Punch (T-Rex), Pink Lemonade (cockatoo), and Berry Blast (shark).

 

One month after hitting retailers’ shelves in March 2021, Fruit Smash was already making its way to becoming New Belgium’s top innovation brand of 2021—exceeding early expectations—and the company has received positive feedback from retailers like Target and Whole Foods for standing out on the shelves. To that end, New Belgium has Enlisted working on designing the second set of fruit-based seltzer flavors and additional projects to enhance the beer-adjacent line that rounds out their portfolio.