Tomos & Lilford Brewery
Opening new and unexpected doorsHybrid Studio created an incredible design which strikes the perfect balance between rustic/homespun and professional, with a font that speaks to our slightly anarchic, unconventional attitude. Hybrid hit the nail right on the head. Suddenly we looked like the professional, creative brewery we’d hoped to be, but had never completely become. We were finally there.
We’ve loved working with Hybrid. They’re that brilliant combination of highly creative and incredibly structured and commercial in their approach. It makes working with them an absolute pleasure.
We really can’t recommend them highly enough.
Vale of Glamorgan based Tomos & Lilford brewery came to us with a great product and a unique story but had very little in the way of an online presence. Their existing branding was largely done on the back of a fag packet (their words!) and was no longer fit for purpose.
Tomos & Lilford had ambitious plans to expand and make a name for themselves while remaining true to their Welsh roots. Brewing with locally sourced botanicals — Seaweed Stout anyone?
They described themselves as being ‘classic with a twist’. Their brandimal would be a cormorant — a bird that defies logic and dives underwater for fish but unlike other seabirds has no waterproofing on its feathers. Hence why you see them with their wings spread drying off in the sun. They are also a native of South Wales coastal regions around the brewery.
Go bold or go home
They were already using a rough and ready spray painted image of a cormorant on packaging, their DIY website and social media accounts and were starting to build a loyal following. Their brand was fit for farmers’ markets and had served them well to date. But they wanted to raise their game, be taken seriously by bigger distributors and buyers, reach a larger audience, be more commercial and ultimately grow the business.
They needed something that could be consistently applied to their products, sales material, online marketing, packaging. The existing brand was holding them back.
The cormorant grows up
We explored several ideas and settled on an approach that was built around a beautiful cormorant linocut illustration by Richard Bawden. This felt like a natural progression of the first cormorant image to something more mature, something beautifully crafted to reflect the craft that goes into the beer itself.
Classic with a twist
We chose an organic, modern, expressive and slightly anarchic display font for the names of the beers and a bright, fresh colour palette to juxtapose the traditional feel of the illustration — classic with a twist.
Rolling out the brand
We applied the new visual style to everything from pump clips to bottle labels and t-shirts to signage.
We created an online store using Shopify. This enabled us to get up and running really quickly and, more importantly, there’s no technical issues for us or them to worry about. It just works.
Adapt and thrive
The online store proved to be invaluable during the first nationwide Covid-19 lockdown of 2020. Local delivery sales soared as pubs were closed and people looked to support local suppliers.
Here’s to a brighter future
The new brand and online store gives Tomos & Lilford the platform on which they can build their empire, confident that they can now compete with the bigger players.
It’s helped us enormously. For the first time all of our products have a consistent look and feel and terrific standout on a shelf. Hybrid also built our first online shop, which has been a game changer in getting our name out there. Demand outside our local area grew so significantly that despite lockdowns and pub closures, we’ve been able to hire a distributor to work with us across the UK and commercially, we’ve continued to grow despite the challenging external environment created by Covid-19.
We’ve become an official supplier to Green Man Festival, we brew the signature beer for the upmarket bar chain Gin & Juice and we make the official beer each year for Wales’ Tafwyl Music Festival, the biggest Welsh language music festival.
The new brand has opened many unexpected and lovely doors for us.
Different brews
Languages
Cormorant
Cormorant print by Richard Bawden.
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