Jeremiah Johnson Brewing Company

With the goal to develop a memorable brand that worked on a national stage, The Front had a few challenges. The origin of the name was unfamiliar to most people and often needed further explanation. After extensive research, we concluded The Front was too abstract and easy to forget. In fact, most people incorrectly referred to the company as Mountain Man. We recognized there was a unique opportunity to pivot the company to the name of the Montana’s famous Mountain Man and the brewery’s new owner: Jeremiah Johnson Brewing Company.

With the new name and strategy in place we wanted to create a Mountain Man that customers would still recognize and love while broadening his appeal to a larger audience. Working in collaboration with Mitch Frey, an industry leader in wood block style, we retained the Mountain Man’s sun glasses, rye smile, barley, and curly beard featured in the original artwork. The new vectorized graphic was built into a full nature scene to allow for additional assets and future brand extension.

Changing the name and look of a successful company or product can be a risk. It was imperative that we create a strategy to retain market share and inform customers of the transition in a positive way. In addition to news articles, social media posts, and advertisements, we developed a tag-line and packaging solution to allow for a smooth transition. “Same beer, Better name” launched a conversation in Montana that lead to positive results.

In addition to overseeing the production process of the cans (die-lines, substraits, color matching, etc.) we developed a completely custom tap handle solution for Jeremiah Johnson. To achieve this goal we spoke to bar tenders, sales reps, and customers to create a comprehensive strategy. We devised an easy-to-use solution that is highly visible in dark bars, multi-versatile, and brand forward. Working with Knotty Taps, we created a tap handle that differentiated the company from competition in a number of ways.

We created newly branded Instagram, Facebook, and Eventbright accounts with website integration. As soon as the sites went live we began to see results. Users began to post pictures using the #jeremiahjohnsonbrewing hash-tag. The can’s large typography and clean design photographed well, making them easy to capture and instantly recognizable from a distance. After three months the company’s Instagram account more than doubled. Today the company has 5x the followers it had a year ago.

We’ve had the opportunity to work with Jeremiah Johnson to make the posters, t-shirts, promotional items, business presentations, etc. to help the company grow. Together we’ve taken the brand and expanded it to include new messaging and marketing materials for customers and distributors. As we continue to work with JJBC we’re setting our goals on helping the company expand out of state and develop ad campaigns for new markets.

The brand got noticed by USA Today as “the brewery to visit” in Montana.

Fatherly.com recommended Mountain Man Scotch Ale as one of their top 5 new beers to seek out.

Shipped over 48,000 cases of beer. That’s an average of 38,400 cans per week. There’s only a million people in Montana.

“The one thing we are most definitive in knowing at this point in the journey is that hiring and working with Caava Design has been tremendously instrumental in our rapid success. We get countless congrats on how great our brand looks from literally all over the country…and we’re just getting started. I can’t say enough about the importance of working with a team on their level.”

~ Jeremiah Johnson