Lafayette, CO — Stem Ciders is teaming up with Interact Brands for a full redesign of its logo, packaging, and overall brand identity.
Guided by the principles of good company, fearless innovation, and real quality, Stem Ciders and Interact Brands sought to bring a more unified brand identity across its packaging and brand portfolio, while also moving forward with a bolder, cleaner, and more innovative approach.
“Over the last couple of years Stem Ciders as a brand has evolved quite a bit, so we felt it was time for our visual identity to evolve with it,” explains Jade Zuspan, Creative Director for Stem Ciders. “We ultimately wanted more consistency across all design elements and for our brand
identity to be more cohesive. This new design approach provides more structure and uniformity, while also offering more room to play and showcase our creativity and ingredients.”
That focus on real quality aligned directly with a desire to better showcase the incredible real ingredients used across the Stem Ciders portfolio.
“Stem is redefining category norms for cider, so we wanted to approach this redesign from the standpoint of highlighting how they’ve been able to grow wild with innovative ingredients while also exhibiting the philosophy of exploring endlessly,” said Fred Hart, Partner & Creative Director at Interact Brands.
Interact Brands sought to break from traditional cider packaging design approaches that tend to employ more maximalist elements by shifting to a cleaner, modern, white background in addition to moving in a more contemporary direction when it came to refreshing Stem’s logo font.
“The Stem Ciders brand is very experimental, brave, and avant-garde, but the company is also based on traditional ingredients and this new wordmark represents both sides of that equation,” said Hart.
Stem’s updated wordmark features a subtle nod back to its roots by incorporating leaf imagery coming off of the letter “t” in the new modern slab serif font.
“It was important to strike a balance between masculine and feminine touches in our new logo,” explains Zuspan. “We felt we were able to accomplish this through a bold masculine mark with feminine swoops.
Perhaps the most dramatic elemental change introduced in the new branding is the incorporation of the organic, blob-like favicon, which serves as a stark contrast to the clean simplistic white background. But more importantly, this favicon also provides a window into the bold, colorful ingredients used in each individual cider brand.
“This succinct, organic favicon represents the liveliness and non-static nature of the brand and it can easily evolve based on the flavor as well,” said Hart. “Stem is known for their dry ciders that feature much less sugar and real fruit, so it was important to how consumers associate with the
brand. That neutral background allows our fruit and color to burst and represent full flavors, but not full of sugar.”
These design shifts all align perfectly as Stem Cider launches a re-designed website and also introduces new carton packaging for their four-pack cans. But more importantly, the Stem Ciders team feels this complete rebrand helps to encapsulate the essence of their full brand evolution inspired by innovation, exploration, and the new mantra that “The World is Your Orchard”.
About Stem Ciders
Stem Ciders, a fast-growing regional cidery based in Lafayette, Colorado, distributes dry-focused craft ciders to 22 states and ships directly to consumers across 38 states. Stem continues to grow nationally with a wholesale and retail focus while also boasting three Colorado retail locations, a transportation company, a wood distributor, and a contract production business. In Spring 2021, Stem created a sales and marketing partnership with Boulder Beer Company to represent Boulder Beer Brands globally. And in Spring 2022 Stem acquired the Howdy Beer brand from The Post Brewing. Learn more at stemciders.com
About Interact Brands
Interact Brands is a branding & design agency with a deep passion and expertise in building food and beverage brands. The agency prides itself on creating wildly effective work for wildly obsessive consumers. Guided by strategy, measured by consequence, Interact has offices in Boulder CO and Austin TX. Clients include challenger brands like KOIA, Vive Organic & Hodo, industry leaders like Niman Ranch, Dogfish Head & Orgain, along with brand stewardship work for a number of Fortune 500 food companies. Learn more at InteractBrands.com