Green Man Brewery Packaging Design

Green Man Brewery wanted to make some noise around its lager. The problem was that beer shelves were already crowded with brands backed by considerably larger marketing budgets.

So we decided subtlety was probably overrated.

As part of a larger body of work for Green Man, we developed a limited-run can design that very deliberately borrowed the visual language of one of the biggest players in the beer business. It was immediately recognizable, slightly antagonistic, and virtually impossible to overlook sitting on a shelf.

Which was exactly the point.

The cans quickly became a story of their own. People noticed them, talked about them, shared them, and started collecting them. The packaging stopped being something that simply contained the beer and became part of the marketing.

They also attracted the attention of the company being referenced.

Yes, there was a cease and desist.

The cans didn’t stay around for long, but they didn’t need to. The limited run generated attention well beyond what a conventional package redesign could have accomplished and gave Green Man Lager a highly visible moment in an extremely crowded category.

Sometimes good packaging helps a product stand out.

Sometimes it picks a fight.