Ballykilcavan Brewery – Craft Beer Design

David from Ballykilcavan Brewery came to us with his idea to produce a Laois craft beer. The brewery is based on David’s farm near Stradbally, Co.Laois, which has been in his family for 13 generations and where they grow their own award-winning grain to make their beer. We discussed his plans, for beer and more, and he invited us to create an identity for the company and packaging design for their initial beer – Bin Bawn Pale Ale.

It was clear to us from day one that it would be important to capture a sense of place and heritage in the design and David was keen to for us to have some fun with the identity too. The Walsh family crest is a griffin, and this griffen can also be found on the farm’s weather vein which sits on top of the grain house. We decided to design an identity with the Walsh griffen at its core.

We created lots of griffen options, some housed in crests looking quite distinguished, others flying over the grain houses and the final fellow selected – loud and more abstracted – sits boldly on the label front in a defined silhouette, with the farmyard silhouette at its rear. We designed the label and a broad range of support marketing material including the beer taps, point of sale material, posters, beer mats and a range of digital advertising.

Within the first year, David launched an additional 3 beers – Fresh Hopped Pale Ale, another IPA and Brickyard Red Ale – and has received 3 Alltech bronze awards.

Always very active across social media, Ballykilcavan Brewery can be found on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter for exciting events such as farm walks, talks, tastings and even pickings… where last season people were selected to join him on his farm to help hand-pick the hops crop. All those who took part were rewarded with some samples of the limited edition beer!

We’re delighted the design has been received so well, its been a pleasure working with David so far and exciting to see his exciting venture – in our own home county – grow into the future.

Client Comments:
“I just wanted to thank you for the fantastic job you’ve done on our branding.  I think it’s really captured everything I wanted my customers to see and everyone I speak to, customers, stockists and funding agencies, is really impressed with it.  It really stands out on the shelves, and in a busy market, that’s exactly what I need. It’s been a real pleasure working with you and the team, and has been one of the most fun parts of starting the business.”
David Walsh-Kemmis