It's bold to be small and fierce

Gooische Bierbrouwerij is a brewery in which Marcel was a founding partner. A startup with a few clear ambitions: to make seriously good and interesting beers, to do so in a socially inclusive and engaging way, and to brew with local ingredients for local people.

Today, it’s a multiple award-winning brewery that still wants to stay small.

The starting point for the brand and packaging design was simplicity and finesse. A concept you could call naked and honest. An understated distinctiveness.

There were two reasons for this approach: premium positioning and sustainability.

A premium brand with a minimalist design requires an eye for detail. We wanted to create a recognisable identity that reflected the slightly “posh” character of the region, het Gooi.

The answer was a character inspired by traditional beer heraldry, but instead of the usual lions, shields, coins and eagles, we chose an icon closer to home: the Chihuahua.

Small but brave. Loyal and devoted…..with wings.

For the product portfolio, we wanted to create a design that puts the beer centre stage and has an intrinsic premiumness that feels at home in quality restaurants.

Restrained rather than loud. No classic brewery clichés. No craft-beer visual overload.

Instead, the packaging expresses the finesse and care that go into making the beer. The bottle does the talking. The label becomes the detail.

Less is more sustainable.

Minimal labelling means less paper, less glue and, above all, less caustic soda needed to get the bottle clean again. That’s why all the legally required information sits on the neck band over the cap. A specially adapted machine was purchased for this. Unique for a beer brand in the Netherlands. That also means there’s no back label. All barcodes are 8-digit instead of 12-digit to save space, and it’s printed on the back of the neck band.

Sustainabillity in design is also a matter of eye for detail.

Staying true to their goals has paid off. Their beers have won multiple prestigious awards and the brewery has grown into a successful business that gives the team the opportunity to invest even more in its social and inclusion ambitions.

Great beer also comes from being open to out-of-the-box ideas. Like this Sweet Chestnut beer, brewed with handpicked chestnuts from the neighbouring nature reserve and the labels were made together with the local forest rangers. It’s all about going the extra mile to get something special.