Hired Guns Creative

SHUSWAP CIDER CO.

The Shuswap Cider Co. is returning the golden age of the apple back to the Shuswap, complete with riverboats and luxurious art deco.

Serene lakescapes crafted with monochrome gradients capture the majesty of the Shuswap and flavour signature of each cider.

The Roaring ‘20s comes through Shuswap Cider in practice and in their branding. Bold and gold art deco grounds these elegant cans in timeless style.

The ephemeral golden apple of myth, coveted by anyone worthy of its gifts. Luckily, this time, there’s enough to go around.

PRISM KOMBUCHA Winnipeg’s Prism Kombucha was the first commercial kombucha producer in Manitoba when they launched in 2017. After being acquired in 2020 the new owners had an eye for expansion but felt that the original branding and packaging designs were holding the brand back.⁠⁠

We created new branding and packaging for them that elevates the brand and helps them stand out - whether it's in grocery stores, convenience stores, or farmers markets - and firmly ties their brand to the wilderness where they source their botanicals.⁠⁠

Mad Bruin is a reimagining of Driftwood Brewery’s Oud Bruin Sour Brown Ale and the latest in their Bird of Prey series.

The bird and bear in conflict on the label are in the midst of collision, old and new themes: the bear of the Oud Bruin and the Bird of Prey. The bear, emerging from hibernation, represents the long slumber of Oud Bruin, finally awakened.

Since the oud bruin style is a classic that stands apart from Driftwood’s other sours, Mad Bruin had to be able to stand on its own while also fitting in seamlessly with the other beers in the Birds of Prey series. Drawing on the stylistic elements of previous Birds of Prey label designs, we focused on the conflict between the bird and the bear, which allowed us to showcase each animal’s distinct personality while not taking away from either theme.

For the branding of luxury cannabis brand Discreetly Baked, we were tasked with creating a look that would feature bold, distinctive branding for a diverse line of cannabis products. We started with the concept of classical, elegant elements to evoke the idea of an upscale party in a bag, with complementary patterns intended to connect the organic and chemical components of cannabis into one, seamless brand.

The eye at the centre of the identity draws consumers in with a provocative look, drawing on pop-art styles to imply a certain cool ambivalence while the eye, half-closed, gives the distinct impression of being baked in a way that’s handled discreetly. We surrounded the eye with hand-drawn geometric illustrations, calling upon the imagery of secret societies as an analogy for the central theme of discretion.

The grapes and flowers in the background of the CBD product line are inspired by the styles found in art nouveau illustrated advertisements, arousing an almost lascivious aesthetic—something exquisite lies within—while the organic matter speaks to the organic nature of the product. The geometric shapes in the THC products distort the organics, as though looking through a faceted lens—they abstract and simplify the forms, while the prismatic colours conjure a sense of psychedelics.

The product packaging features black and crystal containers with gold and silver accents; every vial, vape, and bottle features clean, polished lines and chic designs; these are party favours for discerning individuals seeking an evening of decadence, who favour discretion over careless hedonism.

For Driftwood Brewery’s new Original Gravity Hazy IPA, we used hand-lettered calligraphy, the capital O and G inspired by the “Original Gangsta” graffiti of the late 80s and early 90s.

For this design, we wanted to take a beer known for its northeast roots and tag it with west coast style, to create a connection to the infamous east-vs-west hip hop rivalries of the era.

Original Gravity refers to a measurement taken during the brewing process, but the OG on this label has a deeper meaning—from Original Gangsta to Ocean Grown. The shorthand for this brew, “OG Haze,” is something most West Coasters will connect with.

True to the style, Original Gravity comes on with citrusy brightness followed by a smooth, euphoric cloud of haze, just as the bright, stylized type treatment—the standout on this design—is set against a backdrop of cloudy green hues. With just three words, this design says everything it needs to—OG Haze is a true original, the last word in hazy IPAs.

Mill Street turned to Hired Guns Creative for a rebrand in the fall of 2017. Our challenge was to take a brewery who had grown far beyond their humble origins and redevelop their designs in a way that better told their unique story, all while keeping them connected to their Canadian roots.

Alderlea Vineyards is a pioneer among Vancouver Island wineries, renowned for their commitment to top-shelf wines and consistently considered one of the top wineries on the Island.

When the winery sold in 2017 to Zachary Brown and Julie Powell, Hired Guns was tapped to take on the rebrand, to refresh the look of Alderlea’s packaging to better reflect the world-class wines they produce, to seek an innovative way to showcase their core lineup and high-tier products through distinctive, minimal design elements, while remaining focused on the wines.

The design for Alderlea’s core lineup is clean and minimalist, the silver-foil logo highlights the bottle contents, using the wines themselves as design elements. Each design in Alderlea’s core lineup features striking, crisp type and design elements on a clean, white palette; balanced designs for balanced wines.

Matrix, one of the winery’s special releases, is a complex blend of fully-ripened red varietals and features an equally complex design. Intersecting circuits represented with thin, silver foil represent the subtle complexity of the wine while the geometric typeface with humanist influences bridges the gap between cold minimalism and warm organics.

For North Vancouver’s Wildeye Brewing, we were tasked with creating an identity that would differentiate the brand in an ever-expanding space. We set out to create an identity that would be fresh and classic at the same time. It had to be gritty, but not dirty or dark, possessing elements of elegant simplicity and abstraction — simultaneously material and immaterial.

The origins of the Wildeye brand are inspired by the immense murder of crows that roost in Burnaby and North Vancouver each night during the autumn and winter months. The striking image of the six-winged seraph at the brand’s centre evokes wildness, a flurry of wings and fire representing both order and chaos.

The Coptic-style lettering rendered in metallic colours is reminiscent of illustrated letting on ancient gnostic texts, providing a connection between the wordmark and seraph imagery. The squared edges and geometric design of the Coptic text provide a thematic connection to the symmetry of the seraph.

Each seraph is framed by symmetrical, geometric, stylized patterns illustrated in the Art Deco style which balance the rustic, almost archaic feel of the type and seraph with modern, streamlined elements to create an overall look that is both industrial and craft.

The cans are printed in gold, silver and copper metallic foil on matte black, featuring thematic elements of symmetry, hard edges, and bold, clean lines, leading to an iconic, balanced design with striking elements that stand out in any space.  

Driftwood Brewery’s new Oumuamua Milk Stout is named after the first interstellar object to pass through our solar system. Like that tumbling cosmic entity, the beer is rare and marks a first: the brewery’s inaugural use of lactose. We crafted a dark celestial myth melding these elements with those of the beer’s style, conveyed in the label copy and cinematic artwork. We placed our wispy cloud-ringed planet in the mysterious object’s shadow to emphasize the heady implications of its arrival. The intricate megalith is lent threatening speed and technology via long horizontal lines, aerodynamic outcroppings, the hint of light sources and viewports. The custom typeface boasts both ancient and futuristic qualities, adding to the story—eons of dual civilizations at a monumental crossroad. Shimmering holofoil adds authenticity and a sense of spectacle to the galactic fantasy.

For The Spirit of Tea’s identity, we were tasked with bridging the gap between the kindred, yet disparate spheres of craft spirits and specialty teas to create a design that’s classical, timeless, and traditional, with sleek, contemporary touches. The central idea throughout this design is balance, aiming for the nexus point between modern and classic.

Every element of the bottle design is connected to the “spirit of tea,” drawing customers in to the story of the brand. The striking red and black hues are inspired by the colour palettes of red rooibos and earl grey teas respectively. The hand-illustrated Victorian-style letterforms, used for the type treatment of “TEA,” are a connection to the tea’s Victorian roots.

The design details in the type treatments and gold filigree used throughout the labels are meant to be visually stimulating and provide shelf appeal at every distance. The aesthetic is light and elegant, almost ethereal, from afar. Up close, it’s easy to get lost in the intricate details.

The Spirit of Tea is a brand embodied by interactions between teas and spirits, balancing both to create something distinct, and unique. The final design does the same: balancing modern humanist styles with classic Victorian styles; space and structure, to create a balanced brand representing the best of both worlds.

For Andina Brewing Company’s can designs we were tasked with expanding their brand world to capture the lushness and vibrancy of the company’s Colombian roots – a unique feature in the BC craft beer market. We created a two-part illustration to showcase the bounty and diversity of Colombia’s natural landscape, including tropical foliage and the iconic El Peñón de Guatapé on the left – as well as the country’s cheerful street life, with a guitarist and fruit stand on the right. We illustrated these luscious scenes without linework or gradients, using colourful shapes to emphasize the rhythm of the composition. Careful control of hue and saturation allowed the woman’s figure to form a strong centrepiece alongside the large stacked text, the Castilian beer name. We use a simple band of colour around the neck to help identify the beer style at a glance.

Action on the tracks. An inbound train with freight cars full of hops and grain. The crew comes alive. Their shadows too – blurred figures taking advantage of the layup, laying down spraypaint end to end. This is the place, the junction of art and harvest. This is Railyard Brewing.

For Railyard Brewing, a new craft brewery in Calgary, Alberta, we were tasked with coming up with a name and concept that expresses the team’s love of street art while maintaining strong local roots. We decided on the classic image of a spray-painted grain car, iconic in the world of graffiti, and historically significant to Albertans, especially for growers and brewers.

We chose the name Railyard for its strength and simplicity, and created a bold monogram, a stencil-style “R” reminiscent of stylized wheat logos on old grain cars.

To communicate the overall brand concept clearly and give it the right feel, we decided to separate the brand world into two layers: the first, a strong, no-nonsense brand mark that would look great on the side of a train; and the second, a layer of playful, imaginative artwork painted over the train and the corporate brand.

For the cans, we laid down our illustrations from end to end with vibrant colours in a highly-textured graphic style. The strength of the core concept freed us up to work with a wide range of subject matter, from playing card kings to king cobras — from flying eyeballs to buckshot and deer skulls.

For the design of 45 North Vineyard & Winery’s (www.fortyfivenorth.com/) new lineup of canned ciders, we used insight into their target audience to develop a concept that would resonate: we decided to approach the labels as if they were show posters for headlining acts at the same music festival. This approach would yield highly individualized products, a brand architecture more common in the world of craft beer; our experience in this market let us move forward with confidence that the lineup would hold together as a family.

With this in mind, we developed a minimal design frame, leaving room for top-to-bottom illustration interacting with large custom typography. We focused on creating fun, playful artwork, all designed to flavour, representing the style of cider either metaphorically or abstractly.

45 RPM Semi-Sweet Cider illustrates a tree trunk made into a turntable, its rings playing like a record’s grooves, with vintage vinyl typography.

Oakayzie Barrel-Aged Cider features a beautiful iconic butterfly emerging from an oak barrel, its wings patterned with lunar phases in an echo of its theme, the passage of time.

Fresh Coast Dry Cider shows off the relaxing landscape of Michigan’s middle coast, with a skywriter above the lake writing in a beautiful brush cursive.

Singletrack Citra-hopped Cider features a night sky illuminated by the Aurora Borealis, with lights taking the shapes of hops and a bicycle cutting its path along the rising letters of an elegant script.

Siding 14 Brewing Co. is a new brewery in Ponoka, Alberta, that wanted to pay tribute to the region’s rich Canadian railway heritage. Before the town of Ponoka was named, it was simply known as “Siding 14” of the Calgary-Edmonton Railway Company, a supply point for steam locomotives between the two major cities.

For the brewery brand, we decided to use the language of Art Deco design to evoke early 20th century steam locomotives, fusing old railway signs with a stylized train viewed head on, all rendered in a luxurious excess of linework and filigree.

The bandmark integrates with the detailed design container, its clean geometric lines framing and contrasting with each product’s more textural illustration, all rendered in stark black and silver, with a pop of colour to differentiate the products at a glance. Subtle use of white ink and varnish give the brandmark a touch more presence. A beautiful Art Deco shape gives the labels their elegant diecut edges, revealing a prominent area of naked-can silver, shining in conjunction with the label’s finely-detailed silver foil. And for the truly observant, each label contains a hidden hobo symbol.

Driftwood Brewery's latest creation, Limb From Limb RyePA, features the new Lumberjack™ hop from the BC Hop Company (https://www.bchop.ca/). Using the idea of lumberjacks as a starting point we created a name and artwork for this label that depicts the opposing forces of the spiciness of the rye and the melon/sweet citrus notes of the hops.

The task for Mill Street Brewery’s new Summer Brewpub Pack was to create a mix-pack celebrating the 150th anniversary of Canada – a rare opportunity and challenge, given the number of breweries all working on the same concept, and all at the same time. Rather than celebrating the flag and its colours, Mill Street wanted to highlight a collection of beers brewed at their four brewpubs spread across the country.

We decided to focus on the beautiful land and its iconic wildlife, all drawn in a classic illustration style, mixing flat and 3-D elements to interact with the typography and give the box a playful sense of perspective.

To showcase Mill Street’s presence across Canada, we designed four new beer labels, focusing on each brewpub’s signature recipe. With such different architecture from town to town, we decided to highlight the locations by putting the brewpubs front and centre, illustrated in a graphic one-colour style, with an additional pop of red for each building’s Mill Street sign. Tying together the lineup, we used design elements from luggage tags to emphasize the cross-Canada theme.

For Driftwood Brewery's new Arcus Pilsner, named after the Latin word for both an archer’s bow and the arc of the sun, we created a Sun Goddess, firing her golden rays down from the sky. Against a backdrop of orange clouds, our archer’s strong diagonal pose and long flowing dress and hair give the label a vibrant, dynamic feeling with mythic qualities. The custom typography features the bowlike ornaments of the capital ‘A’, paired with the arrowhead median spurs of the blackletter. Finely detailed hair and sunburst contrast with graphic bow and arrow, all rendered in gold foil to let Arcus shine.

For Whitetooth Brewing Company’s High Gravity series, a high-end lineup of adventurous seasonal beers, we were tasked with creating a new look with the right tone – distinct from the core lineup, while playing to the strength of the Whitetooth brand. We moved away from the core lineup’s use of full action scenes, focusing instead on individual icons isolated on black and rendered in highly-stylized organic polygons. The geometric illustrations complement the sharp, angular brandmark, with playful colours popping off the label, and a touch of foil to bring out the luxury feel of the High Gravity series.

Psychosis 7, named after Golden’s defunct mountain bike race, features an iconic full-face helmet, while Truth Dare Consequence illustrates the mountain where its namesake ski runs descend. More High Gravity beers are already in the works and will be added to this series as time goes on.

Branding & label design for Monashee Spirits., a new distillery amid the mountains in Revelstoke, BC, we were tasked with creating branding and labels that feel classic and playful, while communicating the giant scale of the local landscape.

We decided to focus on the image of a flying anvil, a juxtaposition of heavy and light. The anvil embodies the bold, handcrafted spirit of the company’s “Made in the Mountains” tagline, while the wings lend a light-hearted twist and a nod to Revelstoke’s elevation. The strength of the image allowed us to build two versions of the brandmark: the first rendering is highly detailed and three-dimensional, perfect for the centerpiece of a large paper label; while the second is distilled to its essence for limited colour spaces or smaller contexts.

For the “Monashee” typography, we created custom letterforms with an elegant upright stance and sharp angles set off by serifs that echo the base of the anvil. We designed the lineup using a shared palette of sepia tones contrasting with a bold shot of colour to differentiate each product. The diamond shape forms a motif that’s carried throughout, from the legal info to the background to the top of the stopper, as well as the decorative edges on the cap strap and neck strap that tie it all together.

For Bowen Island’s full rebrand and redesign, we were tasked with creating a look that speaks to new craft drinkers, while retaining the essence of the brand’s history. Their existing customers should think: “it’s a new look, but that’s still my Bowen.”

During our initial brand audit, we came to understand that, more than the specific island itself, it was most important to convey the general West Coast island feeling that a wider base understands and identifies with.

Islands on the West Coast are, of course, complex and multifaceted, so we decided to develop a system in which each beer reflects a different aspect of island life, from a timber raft to a shipyard to the high seas – from a family of coastal black bears to a community of fish in BC’s incredible glass sponge reef. All these individual scenes come together to create a bigger picture: the world of Bowen Island.

To unite these various viewpoints, we designed a brandmark focusing on the simple, iconic anchor, encircling it with a life preserver, the anchor’s floating counterpoint. Binding these is our rope-like script, lettered by hand to convey the Pacific Maritime character of the brand.

We created a design container to unite the product lineup, flying a banner through the artwork to pop the brand forward, while making use of the full canvas for luscious illustration. The main colour of each product’s previous incarnation was carried forward, providing an anchoring element for the existing customers, while we developed the rest of the palette with fresh, friendly colours, inviting you into vibrant scenes of life surrounding Bowen Island.