When we were looking to align our core beer brands and create a greater sense of unity through our redesign, it was clear from the start that some beers would have shift more than others. Mosaic Pale Ale was one of two Jack Brand beers that we thought we could pull into the new, unified range.
It was going to require a real refresh to steer Mosaic away from the templated approach of its existing design, but the beer’s name, flavour profile, and recognisable colour palate gave us something strong to build on.
We wanted to stay true to Mosaic’s brand colours, so it retained something of the familiar. We then proceeded to expand on its story. The beer’s name and its myriad of flavours were key to that process. On searching the local landscape, we found ourselves drawn to Dunwich Forest, which is located on the Suffolk coast between Walberswick and Aldeburgh. It is often described as a mosaic of habitats, as heathland meets forest and then meets the beach.
Artist, Vanessa Sorboen, visited Dunwich to take pictures, then painted a true representation of a scene that she saw. It was a setting-sun moment where the light comes through the trees. This made the shadows look darker and because the trees are sometimes planted in rows, it created grid-like lines and amazing geometric shapes on the floor, which give that familiar mosaic-like pattern.
“For Mosaic Pale Ale I went on lots of walks in the forest at Dunwich. The first time I went there, I thought I’d stopped at the wrong place, because it felt like a forest, but in reality it was just a bit further on and closer to the coast. There’s a sort of minimalism that goes on forever and then you're on the heath and then you've got the actual forest which is just before the beach. It’s a landscape that I associate with growing up in Cornwall, because we had all that yellow gorse and purple heather too.”
“I love the fact that the forest stretches onto the beach. They're totally different, those kinds of forests - and they've got sand. The thing I remember is there was a kind of uniformity to the pine trees. They felt close together and sat in straight lines that cast shadows.
“I was given the colours, and they were my kind of colours. I love that tone of greenish blue, and I love pink. It was a no brainer. The colours together with the lined shadows really gives you the sense of a mosaic. The painting has a nice feel to it - it moves freely across the canvas.
Mosaic Pale Ale’s cans will get black lids going forward and the brand will also get its first bespoke box, having previous been in generic Adnams packaging. The new boxes will roll out in the next couple of months when existing packaging is exhausted. The new design translates beautifully, and we can’t wait to see them on the shelves.