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InspirationGraphic Design

Cold Town Beer from Edinburgh's latest brewery is served up by Thirst Craft

There's a new craft beer brewery in the notoriously chilly city of Edinburgh, but they didn’t have a name, positioning or brand to speak of – so they turned to Glasgow studio Thirst Craft (featured previously).

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Hand holding a Cold Town Beer lager can with white and turquoise design against a bright blue background

"With over 2,000 breweries in the UK, the category has never been busier," says designer Craig Robertson. "The shelves and bars are swamped with wild names and intricate illustrations to decode, so much so that consumers who come to the category looking for choice can often end up feeling paralysed by it. We developed a simple positioning to silence this noise – call a beer a beer."

Inspired by a contemporary interpretation of Edinburgh’s Calton Hill, which literally means "Cald Toun" in old Scots, Cold Town Beer was born. A clean, striking system brings powerful stand-out and range navigation, while the snowflake asterisk provides a strong brand device both on and off the pack. "To continue to keep things simple," Craig adds, "the can is two-faced, introducing single word beer descriptors at its heart to prompt and help consumer choice."

The brand and tone of voice rolls out seamlessly onto the brewery, merchandise, glassware, vehicle livery and beyond. Released in venues across Glasgow and Edinburgh, it has apparently outperformed predicted sales in every unit – consistently outselling big established brands as one of the top two bestsellers in the top 10 pubs. Plus with a brewpub due to open at the end of 2018, the temperature’s only going to get cooler.

Cold Town Beer cans in bright blue with black labels featuring the brewery's snowflake asterisk logo, arranged on crushed ice
Hand holding a Cold Crisp Lager can with snowflake design and blue label, spray effect visible
Glass of pale golden Cold Town Beer with white snowflake asterisk logo, topped with white foam head
Two Cold Town Beer glasses with snowflake asterisk logos, held by hands, displaying the brewery's minimalist branding on a wooden surface
Two Cold Town Beer cans on a pink background, one light blue and one purple, displaying the minimalist branding with snowflake asterisk logo and beer descriptors
Four Cold Town Beer cans in Wit, Pale Ale, Berliner Weisse and New England IPA varieties displayed against a pink background
Person wearing a black Cold Town Beer t-shirt standing next to glasses of beer
Cold Town Beer neon sign with blue lettering and white border displayed against a dark background inside the brewery
Person wearing a black cap and orange and white Cold Town Beer branded t-shirt at the brewery
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