Holmes & Marchant has redesigned the packaging for the popular Northern Ireland lager, Harp, giving the packaging a more modern look and feel. Holmes & Marchant needed to create a design that appealed to both the brand’s loyal consumers and drinkers of competitive brands.

The redesign of the take-home packs (bottles, cans and shrink-wrap/carriers) followed Harp’s successful launch of an ‘extra cold’ variety in the on-trade. This meant that all new designs would have to reference this “cold and refreshing” message, which has been so successful in the on-trade.

In the new design, the famous Harp blue colour has been retained but is much fresher and brighter. The Harp logo remains the same but the gold bar behind it has been changed to a darker shade of blue to allow the branding to become more prominent.

Harp’s brewing credentials (the wheatsheaf, the brewery logo and the ‘naturally brewed’ message) are now contained within the silver circle, helping to frame the branding and communicate freshness and quality.

Hayley Laven, account director at Holmes & Marchant, said,“Harp is Northern Ireland’s number one lager in the on-trade, but in the highly competitive off-trade sector it needed to raise its game. The new pack has fantastic stand-out in store, with a clean look that still contains all the important information: the brewery logo, the wheat—all visual cues that this is the same drink that people in Northern Ireland know and love, but really brought up-to-date.”