Danny Harms, partner at Studio DNVR
Andy & Ashley Sparhawk, owners of The Foam Line
Nestled in a valley within the Rocky Mountain lies the tiny town of Lake George, Colorado. It's here that spouses Andy and Ashley Sparhawk plan to build a brewery named The Foam Line, intended as a destination for craft beer aficionados, fly-fishers, and lovers of the great outdoors.
"We want to create something for ourselves that we can be proud of and that gives us more control over the decisions we make for our young, growing family."
The name “The Foam Line” has two meanings:
The first references the foam that forms in moving rivers that fish use for shelter, oxygen, and a source of food.
The second reference is to that beautiful line of foam at the top of a good pour of beer.
"Local Beer" references their commitment to serve quality beer to their community. They want their brewery to be welcoming, to include everyone, to teach people about beer, and to foster a family-friendly environment.
To begin, the clients completed my brand questionnaire and I met to discuss their answers. This helped me discover their target market, what makes their company unique, and where they want to take the company in the future.
I researched other brands in their market and created a competitive analysis. From these insights, I determined a strategy and creative direction.
After determining a strategy and conducting a competitive brand analysis, I assembled curated visual moodboards from inspirational examples in use by other brands in a wide spectrum of different styles.
I met with the client and discussed their thoughts about the moodboards, which helped me quickly determine their preferences, surface insights, and identify the essence of their ideal brand.
I took inspiration from Lake George and the surrounding area. Andy is an incredibly deep storyteller, and his vision helped infuse the design process with a wide range of references like the South Platte river, native cutthroat trout, and amazonite—a turquoise mineral found in the surrounding mountains.
The combined beer and fly-fishing themes provided ample avenues as I sketched ideas and explored creative approaches and concepts.
In our first logo design review, we presented three polished concepts to Andy and Ashley that we believed would work but focused on different aspects of their brand.
We learned that the client was not in love with any of the concepts. While there were certain elements from each concept they liked, none felt like the one.
We build in these rounds of design and revision so that we can make course corrects within a helpful time frame.
Andy and Danny had a great conversation and realigned on his vision for the logo. Andy was open to share his own logo sketches. Since we strive for true collaboration with our clients we welcomed his input and expanded upon his idea to design a new concept.
In our Round Two review meeting, we learned this concept was very close to Andy's vision.
For our third and final review, we presented a finessed update of the strong concepts from Round 2.
Andy and Ashley enthusiastically approved this version, and there was much rejoicing. Cheers to collaboration!
The collaborative creative process undertaken alongside the client helped guide me to the final approved primary logo design.
I expanded the primary logo design to include alternate logo variations that are optimized for a variety of placement constrictions (such as embossing or embroidery).
This flexible logo system offers a robust toolkit to help those who work with the Foam Line brand.
To complete the logo and brand identity, I designed the brand’s visual elements like the color palette, brand typefaces, usage guides (safe margins, sizing guide, incorrect usage), and more.
I then assembled a set of brand guidelines to help The Foam Line and any of their vendors display a professional and consistent brand identity through all customer touch points.
