Creating a local craft beer brand in collaboration with Carlsberg & Brooklyn Brewery.

Following our successful creation of the B2C craft beer brand Craft & Crew. Carlsberg entrusted us to help them create a craft beer brand that Hong Kongers will proudly adopt as their own.

Starting with the brand strategy and brand positioning, we worked alongside the Hong Kong and Brooklyn team to create a clear and unique brand manifesto where east meets west in a creative craft beer universe.

Date
2019
Services
Brand Positioning / Brand Strategy / Brand Identity / Brand Guidelines/ Brand Naming / Brand Content Writing / Brochure Design / PowerPoint Presentation Design / Packaging Design / Business Card & Stationary Design / Copywriting / Translation / Photography / Web Design Services / WordPress / Social Media Strategy / Social Media Content Creation / Social Media Management / Printing Services

The YAU spirit is about the power of comradery and community. It is about shared passion, like minds and, at the end of the day, people.

We named the master brand HK YAU – the character YAU <<友>> expressing the spirit of friendship and community in the authentic Hong Kong culture. The three new beer variants use local flavours and recipes with a North American influence. To explain this mix of east vs west, “Times Square Lager’, “Underground Pale Ale”, and “New Kong Wheat” were born.

Steven's company ipulse has on countless occasions delivered us with an excellent final product whether that be a product rebrand or a fully functional website set out to our exact specifications. I would recommend Steven and his ipulse team to anyone looking for world class design solutions.

James Beacher Commercial Head - C&S Brands at Carlsberg Brewery Hong Kong Limited

A career highlight to follow in such esteemed branding talents.

Milton Glaser’s iconic Brooklyn brewery logo will forever be loved for its stylish symmetrical simplicity that captures the essence of the Brooklyn brand. We were briefed to look at the full range of Brooklyn brewery brands and keep it in keeping. The brand identity we created has the east vs west graphic influence around the outer circle. The centre YAU mark is uniquely hand-drawn, linking back to the local craftmanship concept and a nod to Milton himself.

Brand colours, packaging and a nod back to Hong Kong craftmanship.

The master brand identity colour is synonymous with Hong Kong. The swarms of red taxi’s to the red glows from the neon bar signs. By exploring Hong Kong neon sign making history, we developed the overall palette of brand colours (red, blue, green and black).

For the three beer varients, Lager, Wheat and Pale Ale, we worked with neon Pantones to translate the concept of neon lights onto all packaging design and POS. We also found the last remaining neon sign maker and commissioned him to craft a hand made customised HK YAU neon sign.

An eighteen-month journey and a successful rollout across Hong Kong.

Comprehensive brand guidelines were created to cover the application of the brand from brewery to bar. The ipulse graphic design team created a specific brand DNA running across all marketing channels. Beer tap handles, glassware and marketing campaigns were made with our creative director overseeing the brand photography and videography.

Our web design team created a custom website design in dual language with an interactive map of location outlets for the consumer to sample HK YAU.

We stayed engaged as a creative design agency to deliver a social media strategy, social media content creation and social media management across the first year of launch. We were happy to see the beer be adopted and savoured across Hong Kong’s craft beer community.

Photo of a black chef and an asian woman smiling at the camera is used as HK YAU social media post
Photo of pint of draft beer is used as HK YAU social media post
Photo of a huge grilled steak ready to be cut is used as HKYAU social media post
Photo of three pints of fresh draft beer is used as HK YAU social media post
Photo of two happy young women working for HK YAU smiling at camera with their beer in front of big machines is used as HK YAU social media post
Vintage graphic with smoky singing scene designed by ipulse creative agency is used as HK YAU social media post
Photo of two ladies during an event of HK YAU is used as their social media post
Graphic of beer and slogan designed by ipulse creative agency in Hong Kong is used as HK YAU social media post
Photo of draft beer pouring from the machine is used as HK YAU social media post
Photo of price list and beer is used as HK YAU social media post

Introducing HK YAU