The task
The brief was to bring a modern and refreshing change to the brand based on the look and feel already done in the export market. As Budvar targets the people who love beer and who love to talk about beer, the new design should express the core values of Budvar’s craft: its consistency and tradition in brewing that enables the best quality. Ultimately it means the love for beer and its craft, which Budvar does with pride.
As for its variants, Budvar wanted to have them with individual stories and look and feel. The complete portfolio should not look like it is made from brother variants, but like a modern extended family.
After getting to know the story behind every product we wanted to represent them in a way that would raise the interest of consumers and help them find some meaningful connections with the brand. The strategy was to move the portfolio from monolithic to diversified.
We used the parent-brand Budvar to subtly connect all sub-brands, setting apart the original variant as the hero and used basic unifying elements as the unique red color and the label layout with the round stamp placed on the top.
Pale beer is the light lager, with less alcohol in comparison with Budvar Original. It is traditional country style beer. Its light and wholesome, authentic character is translated into the design by lighter colors. We used the white background instead of beige, and silver secondary color, instead of gold, still keeping a strong visual connection to the original.
Dark lager gets its dark rich color from roasting the malt instead of adding caramel. This step guarantees a not too sweet taste and soft bitterness with notes of coffee. This unique formula inspired us to place the signatures of the innovator brew masters on the label. The secondary color chosen was black which signals the dark beer.
For Non-alcoholic we played with the blue color, which represents the sub-category on the market. We used a combination of darker and lighter shades of blue with the wavy element bringing non-alcoholic freshness to the design.
Budvar 33 is the first bitter lager, and its rebel personality is visualised by dominant 33 typography with abraded texture. The combination with a bold black “Budvar” headline evokes its roughness and strength.
With the portfolio redesign, the focus shifted to the beer itself and moved the brewery brand (The National Brewery) to a supporting role. This led us to fine tune the brand’s off-pack identity and prepare an extensive roll-out of materials for the Brewery, On-trade and Off-Trade.
