We’re pretty busy around here at Murmur Creative, so we don’t have a lot of time to submit our work for awards. The exception is the American Marketing Association’s MAX awards. Every year, the Portland chapter of the American Marketing Association hosts the AMA MAX Awards to honor creative work from across the Pacific Northwest (and holds a fantastically fun awards ceremony to bring us all together!). We love meeting with other agencies and seeing everyone’s best work. We were very excited to win in the Best Branding category. (This is actually the second time we’ve taken home the best branding award. Woot!)
Oh and look! It was featured in the Portland Tribune!
We’ve been thrilled by the reception the new Cascade logo and packaging has received and feel so honored to have been a part of this revolutionary rebrand.
Cascade Brewing initially came to us with a problem: when they sold their bottles in stores, customers seemed confused about their positioning. As artisinally crafted, barrel-aged sour beers, Cascade sells at a higher price point than many other local beers. They also have three product tiers that they needed to differentiate clearly for customers while maintaining a consistent brand identity.
We didn’t want customers to confuse Cascade with other spirits, but we wanted to communicate some of the artistry and value of wine or whiskey in a way that felt like beer. We began with a new logo inspired by the barrel aging process. We also played with historical revolutionary iconography to create the hammer and spigot design.
The new packaging incorporated the new logo on a field of fun bright colors for the initial tier, a watermark background for the middle tier, and a stamped foil flourish for the highest tier. All the packaging comes together to evoke a sense of place, history, and artistry.
It’s the Cascades in a bottle. And now that bottle has a super-cool trophy! Learn more about this branding project here.
