HAWK Design & Creative

BEER CAN LABEL DESIGN

The Peril in the Atlantic Pilsner

Buffalo 9 Brewing makes beer inspired by the stories of those who serve.

Their vision is for every Buffalo 9 can to tell a different story from Canada's military history. They came to us with the story of the HCMS Guysborough, a Canadian minesweeper built in Vancouver in 1942. She sailed for Nova Scotia before carrying on to Plymouth, England, where she arrived in March of 1944. HMCS Guysborough was present on D-Day, before returning to Nova Scotia to be refit. On her return to England in March 1945, Guysborough was torpedoed by the submarine U-878 off Ushant Island in the English Channel. 51 people lost their lives.

Approach

War diary inspired

As with the Ridge by Midday NEIPA label, we wanted this to look and feel like something out of a war diary. We sketched the Guysborough floating on top of some cut out waves, with U-878 lurking in the background. The sky is textured with a map of the Atlantic ocean, helping to visualize minesweeper’s cross-Atlantic journey.

Storytelling

Copywriting on this can focuses on the night the Guysborough was torpedoed, with a red dot to indicate where the ship went down. While many of the sailors survived the initial blast, they were unable to survive the freezing water for long enough for the rescue boats to arrive.

Branded collateral

The Battle in the Atlantic was the longest battle in the war. We named this beer after a quote by Winston Churchill; ‘the only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril’.

Solution

HAWK worked with Buffalo 9 to develop a unique label inspired by the story of the HMCS Guysborough. Designed to work alongside the design of the NEIPA, this label is war-diary themed. We developed custom illustration to help paint a picture, with copywriting to help tell the story.