“Toasting Change”: Toast Ale launches new visual identity with B&B studio

14 Aug 2019 --- Toast Ale, a UK brand that brews beer from surplus bread, has partnered with B&B studio to create a new brand identity. The redesign includes a new packaging design, emphasizing the brand’s planet-saving potential front and center, according to B&B studio. The new logo features a condensed Toast wordmark, which aims to symbolize collaboration, unity and the “clinking glasses” of toasting. This is enclosed in a circle to evoke the circularity of the brand’s product, the head of a pint of beer, or even the planet itself. The company says it could take up to six months before the new look is entirely out there, estimating that the full transformation will be complete for 2020.

“The design overhaul of our packaging is almost complete in the UK. Cans are a new stock keeping unit, so there were no changes to make as such. We launched the core range of craft beers in cans with support from our successful crowdfunding,” Louisa Ziane, Global Brand and Sustainability Director at Toast Ale tells PackagingInsights.

She adds that the brand is also working on changing branding across point of sales, but as the team consists of two people, that will take a few months. “It will take time for the old label stock to sell. We won’t destroy existing stock or recall products already on the market due to the environmental impact of doing so. Obviously, this would also have had an associated cost that we’re avoiding.”

Costs of the move are minimal, according to Ziane. “We invested in the rebrand design work with B&B studio and will have non-exceptional brand and marketing costs to support it.”

The company doesn’t have a specific carbon footprint for cans yet but says that by using less barley and preventing bread from going to landfill, it has avoided emissions of 32.1tCO2e, which is equivalent to flying around the world 9.2 times. “The brand aims to be as sustainable as possible by using glass bottles and aluminum cans while working within production and supply chain constraints,” says Shaun Bowen, Creative Partner at B&B studio.

The billboard acts as a brand manifesto, conveying an optimistic, motivational call to action.Expressing “epicness”
The biggest design challenge was to express the “epicness” of Toast’s brand mission, says Bowen. “While brewing beer from surplus bread helps alleviate food waste at a local level, the brand also puts 100 percent of its profits into charities looking to revolutionize the food system in order to save the planet. We wanted to represent this bigger planet-saving mission without resorting to obvious eco-cliché. Our solution was the circle device, representing both the planet and the brand’s desire for a circular economy.”

Additionally, the brand is shifting away from its old tagline of “Brewed with Bread” and towards the message of “Toasting Change.”

“The name ‘Toast’ was always a clever blend of toast as in bread and toast as in cheers. The new design shifts the emphasis toward the cheers through the letters themselves almost clinking together and the tagline ‘Here’s to Change.’ This makes the brand message clear – we’re about more than just brewing with bread, we’re about saving the planet through changing behaviors,” Bowen continues.

The campaign also features a billboard with a toast to “bakers, brewers, landlords and punters saving the planet over a pint” acting as a brand manifesto, says the creative agency. Tone of voice is crucial to the brand identity, with it aiming to convey a motivational call to action that is optimistic without detracting from Toast’s monumental and critical mission. On pack, the logo has clear color coding and tasting notes that integrate the brand’s product and its purpose.

Meanwhile, total UK food surplus and waste in primary production stands at 3.6 million tons per annum. This is 7.2 percent of production, while the market value of this food is in the region of £1.2 billion (US$1.4 billion), showing the huge potential for companies like Toast Ale that aim to reduce this total.

By Katherine Durrell

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