Elm City Brewing
Client
Elm City Brewing Company
Location
Keene, NH
Scope
Comprehensive Branding Package
Year
2026
This wasn't a rebrand from scratch. It was about finding what already worked, stripping away what didn't, and building a system that could actually hold up in the real world.
01 — 02
Understand the foundation
Before designing anything, I audited what Elm City already had. The identity felt inconsistent, overly detailed, and hard to use. But this wasn't a "start over" situation — it was a refine and strengthen one.
Elm City is a local staple — built on community and approachability. The brand needed to feel welcoming, established, and simple without being generic.
03 — 04
Strip it down. Build it up.
The biggest shift was restraint — removing unnecessary detail, visual noise, and inconsistencies. Then rebuilding around clean, recognizable forms that scale across menus, merch, signage, and digital.
The goal wasn't a single logo. It was a flexible identity system — multiple logo variations, a clear typographic hierarchy, an intentional color palette, and supporting assets that all work together.
05 — 06
Test it. Keep what matters.
Every decision was tested against real use cases. Can this work on a beer can? Does it read from across the room? Will staff actually use this correctly? If it didn't work in the real world, it didn't make the cut.
The goal was never to erase Elm City's history — it was to distill it. The final identity keeps the spirit of the original, just clearer, stronger, and built to last.
Most brands don't need more.
They need less — done right.
Brand
Guidelines.
01 / 31
Use the arrows to look through the guide.
A brand only matters if it works where people actually see it. Here's how Elm City shows up — from behind the bar to out in the world.
From the bar top to the street — the brand shows up everywhere it matters.