Badger Brewery’s new identity features a menagerie of brand characters

Designed by Robot Food the new direction looks to appeal to a new generation of drinkers who normally choose craft beer, while also recognising the traditions of a “well-loved brand”.

Robot Food has designed a new identity for Dorset-based Badger Brewery, looking to bring its range of beers together under a newly prominent brand, while strengthening the character of each brew with new illustrations.

According to Robot Food creative director Ben Brears, the main challenges faced by premium bottled ales are “an ageing customer base, declining penetration, and a craft beer boom” that has left the category seeming “distinctly dusty and old-fashioned in comparison”.

The brewery contacted Robot Food on the strength of its work for other breweries, Brears says. It was looking for a rebrand that would “breathe new life, excitement and energy into the Badger Band and premium bottled ales overall, without alienating existing customers”.

According to Brears, the strength of the badger range is that its products “have stood the test of time, without the gimmicks and triple-hopped trends of craft beer”. Looking to harness this, and bring products that are still “well-known and well loved” to a new generation, the new identity sought to “draw attention back to Badger”, he says.

As is common in the category, Badger’s beers were previously marketed as individual brews, rather than emphasising the brewery. Brears says this resulted in consumers purchasing the Badger range “but not even realising it.”

While the previous packaging “lacked a unified brand identity on the main label, with just a small badger roundel on the neck”, a new “Badger masthead” has been created to give new prominence to the brewery, whose heritage stretches back to 1777.

A custom-drawn wordmark was applied to the “cleaned up and simplified Badger roundel” too, evolving the heritage mark “to help ease the transition” and provide another “point of recognition for existing customers”, in pubs and retail environments.

At the heart of the branding are illustrated animal characters, with one for each of the beers – such as Fursty Ferret, Tangle Foot and Blandford Fly.

Animal illustrations have long featured in the packaging, Brears says, “but they often lacked a clear connection to the tales Badger told on the back of pack, or the names of the beers themselves”.

Illustrator Bob Venables was chosen to work on the new characters, for his ability to “bring animals to life with charm and personality”, Brears says.

“We crafted stories and personalities for all Badger’s characters — right down to the wardrobe details — and agreed them with the Badger team before briefing Bob and working with him to bring the characters to life.”

Debating details such as “how a seal would wear a shirt, or the exact amount of chest hair a field mouse would show through its tracksuit while holding a javelin” was a “joyful” process, Brears adds.

The redesign seeks to “enhance the characterful tales at the heart of the brand and bring them to life visually with the same level of care, craftsmanship and charm” of the beer, Brears says. Colours remain similar, but have been made “punchier”, while some of the beers’ “wacky-leaning” lettering has been swapped for a trio of sans serif fonts: headline font Poppins, supported by Bicyclette and Bernino Sans.

On the process of designing the new identity, Brears adds that the Badger team’s “stories, tales and entrenched knowledge” was essential, and helped “feed into the design and illustrations of each beer”.