Design for Watney Mann : article in "Display" magazine, September 1966
I actually have quite a liking for this clevery conceived corporate identity that was commissioned by the brewery group Watney Mann Ltd in 1966 from the Design Research Unit. At the time Watney Mann were, like many other major brewers, busy acquiring many smaller regional concerns, and the subject of a corporate identity for the design of disparate elements such as advertising, publicity, packaging and architecture was being considered by many such companies.
Wattney Mann went to one of the greats - the Design Research Unit who at the time were probably at the peak of their powers - in the early to mid 1960s they, for example, undertook the rebranding of British Rail and did the design specification for London Transport's new Victoria line Underground. This project is credited to one of their founding partner's, Milner Gray, but also nicely credits other involved. Watt Mann, instead of sweeping away their regional subsidiaries and brands, realised that they had considerable local loyalties that could be retained and exploited. The clever trick was to present them in within a single 'look' across the whole group. The identity was also capable of a degree of adaptation, such as for differing styles of public house or property architecture, so as to be more sympathetic to a particular age or style of pub. The look was also carried across bottle labels, pump clips and vehicles. The graphic design and style was also suitably robust enough to speak to previous brewery styles without being too retro - a clever trick.
All in all it reminds me of the work we did at LondonUnderground some years ago on design specifications for different thematic groups of stations - by company, architect or age so as to look sympathetic to each 'type' yet part of the Underground system and 'look'. Watney Mann staged an exhibition of their new look at the London Design Centre along with the Council of Industrial Design who were keen to showcase the approach. The exhibition design itself is a gem - even down to that street facade of public houses to show how the 'look' could be applied and much use of the various now long lost local brewery names.
Design for Watney Mann : article in "Display" magazine, September 1966
I actually have quite a liking for this clevery conceived corporate identity that was commissioned by the brewery group Watney Mann Ltd in 1966 from the Design Research Unit. At the time Watney Mann were, like many other major brewers, busy acquiring many smaller regional concerns, and the subject of a corporate identity for the design of disparate elements such as advertising, publicity, packaging and architecture was being considered by many such companies.
Wattney Mann went to one of the greats - the Design Research Unit who at the time were probably at the peak of their powers - in the early to mid 1960s they, for example, undertook the rebranding of British Rail and did the design specification for London Transport's new Victoria line Underground. This project is credited to one of their founding partner's, Milner Gray, but also nicely credits other involved. Watt Mann, instead of sweeping away their regional subsidiaries and brands, realised that they had considerable local loyalties that could be retained and exploited. The clever trick was to present them in within a single 'look' across the whole group. The identity was also capable of a degree of adaptation, such as for differing styles of public house or property architecture, so as to be more sympathetic to a particular age or style of pub. The look was also carried across bottle labels, pump clips and vehicles. The graphic design and style was also suitably robust enough to speak to previous brewery styles without being too retro - a clever trick.
All in all it reminds me of the work we did at LondonUnderground some years ago on design specifications for different thematic groups of stations - by company, architect or age so as to look sympathetic to each 'type' yet part of the Underground system and 'look'. Watney Mann staged an exhibition of their new look at the London Design Centre along with the Council of Industrial Design who were keen to showcase the approach. The exhibition design itself is a gem - even down to that street facade of public houses to show how the 'look' could be applied and much use of the various now long lost local brewery names.