This content was originally published by The Hop Review, a digital magazine that joined the Hop Culture family in March 2020.
This piece was written by Jack Muldowney.
CINCINNATI, OH
Beer & Branding: Rhinegeist Brewery
Whether or not you’ve been to southern Ohio, there is a chance you are familiar with this brewery – if only just for it’s striking design. Cincinnati’s Rhinegeist Brewery just might be the Midwest’s, if not the country’s, single most thought out brand. As a stickler for consistency and throughly designed identity systems, they satisfy my design OCD. From the brew kettle window to the swag to the packaging system – everything is carefully considered (plus, just look at that space!)
The design credits go to Austin, TX based design firm, Helms Workshop (for the logo) and the brewery’s go-to creative, Jonathan Reynolds. The identity is managed by Tracey Ireland. We asked Tracey what the strong visual language and overall brand approach means to the company: “We are dreamers at heart and are insatiably curious. That means we approach our work with a zestful sense of exploration and creative expression. You’ll see that in all aspects of who we are ranging from our meticulous approach to small batch mastery, to our innovative self distribution model, our taproom events and our stunning can design. We like to think of ourselves as quirky and want to deliver an experience to our community that always delights and delivers a little bit of the unexpected. At the end of the day we want to create amazing, beer and build a brand that is as much about the beer as it is about the community that celebrates it.”
And for that, we just had to reach out to the brewery to share as many images of their brand as we could get our hands on. Thankfully, they happily obliged.
“At the end of the day we want to create amazing, beer and build a brand that is as much about the beer as it is about the community that celebrates it.”
Photography provided by Rhinegeist Brewery & design by Jonathan Reynolds.
Logo design by Helms Workshop.
Much thanks to Rhinegeist and their team for so graciously gathering and sharing all of these images for us. If there ever was a reason to get down to visit Cincinnati… Cheers!