BrewDog Redesigns Packaging for the First Time in Five Years
BrewDog redesigns packaging for the first time in five years
Photo credit: BrewDog
For the third edition of our Beverage Packaging Redesign: 2025 index, our team decided to look into the recent packaging redesign by Scottish beer company BrewDog. The redesign, across their portfolio of primary and secondary packaging, is the first redesign since 2020, catalyzed by James Taylor, former Chief Financial Officer for BrewDog, stepping up as the CEO in March 2025.
BrewDog has been a leader in the UK and international craft beer market since their 2007 inception in Fraserburgh, Scotland. They are known for their clever branding and wide range of beer varieties, including Punk IPA, Hazy Jane New England Style IPA, and Lost Lager.
According to Statista, “half of the top ten craft beers sold off-trade (in retail)” in 2024 across the UK were BrewDog products. BrewDog’s Punk IPA was the “leading off-trade craft beer brand in the UK with its sales accounting for 20.7% of the sales in the craft beer category” in the year 2019.
Despite being a leader in the craft beer space in the UK and other markets, Lauren Carrol, BrewDog’s Chief Operating Officer, was quoted in Food Manufacture stating the redesign is helping the firm enter into a “new era.”
Category leaders are often moved to refresh their brand and packaging to keep up with new trends and overcompetitive product categories, including vitaminwater and Lipton who both redesigned their packaging this year to stand out in congested segments.
The new primary packaging (pictured above) contains the following new elements compared to the 2020 redesign (below this section):
Adopting a more minimalist design style across products
Adding a new orange-striped design for their Elvis Juice
New and dynamic typeface across products, including Punk IPA, Elvis Juice, and Hazy Jane
Moving the BrewDog logo above “BREWDOG” from original location
Replacing “BREWED IN ELLON” with “BREWED FRESH”
Removing “UNITED WE STAND FOR BETTER BEER | FIERCELY DEFIANT AND INDEPENDENT”
Changing “BREWDOG” from black to white in some designs (Hazy Jane)
To get a closer look at the changes, compare the new Hazy Jane can with the 2020–2025 version:
The new design is less cluttered, includes a font style more in line with the name, and has a fun, wavy background. In our opinion, the redesign is more pleasing to the eyes, filled with personality and a unique identity for the Hazy Jane line of beer. But it is certainly more minimalistic and might get lost on craft beer shelves in the retail environment.
Perhaps this minimalist approach in a category with artistic and unconventional designs will stand out to consumers—only time will tell. The Packaging School will be tracking this redesign to see if it was successful or not, so stay tuned for more information in the coming months.
Lauren Carrol, BrewDog COO, was quoted in The Grocer stating:
“The new packaging will do something we always sought to do right from the start – disrupt the category. Our mission remains as it has always been; to make people as passionate about great beer as we are.”
Read more about BrewDog’s redesign here.
Learn how to redesign your product packaging
Conducting a brand refresh and packaging redesign is not an easy task, especially for beverage, CPG products, and other fast-moving consumer goods. How do you create a new identity while holding on to the elements of your story and brand that consumers gravitate towards? And how do you reflect this in product packaging design?
In order to answer these questions and help brands navigate the challenges associated with redesigns, the Packaging School recently launched our newest online program—reDesign Your Package.
The course includes guidance on how to develop a packaging redesign framework and process, access to packaging design software, insight into 70+ human psychology and ergonomic design tactics to appeal to consumers' senses, and more.
Learn more about the program here.
Interested in seeing if the program is a good fit for you? Reach out to info@packagingschool.com to book a demo call with one of our advisors.
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