Harpoon Updates IPA Packaging For 30th Anniversary
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MyBeer Buzz
We brought you a peek back in July…and now this from Harpoon:
When I founded Harpoon with two of my friends in 1986, we weren’t brewers; we were just three young guys who loved good beer and wanted to open a brewery where friends could come together and have fun times with great beer. Nothing sums it up better than our motto: Love Beer. Love Life. Since we brewed our first beer we’ve lived by that motto, through our festivals, our sporting and fundraising events, and our breweries in Boston and Windsor.
As we head into our 30th year, it’s time for our logo and our branding to evolve. Over the next several weeks you’ll start to see it first in a refreshed Harpoon IPA package and a revised Harpoon logo on all of our packaging. Don’t worry, we are not changing who we are, or most importantly, the beer inside the bottle, can, or keg. But we are working hard to tell the Harpoon story better to people who don’t know us as well as you do.
The new IPA package and refreshed Harpoon logo are just the beginning and we hope you like it as much as we do. I know that change can be difficult, but we love it. After all, if beer drinkers had not been willing to embrace change over the past 30 years, we would all still be drinking light yellow lagers and not knowing what we were missing!
I couldn’t be more excited about this next phase for Harpoon – our new look, some great new beers in the works for 2016, and I’m surrounded by my fellow employee owners through it all. It’s been a wonderful 30 years, but I have no doubt that the best years for Harpoon are ahead.
Cheers,
Dan Kenary
Co-Founder and CEO 
“As we head into our 30th year, it’s time for our logo and our branding to evolve,” said Harpoon CEO and co-founder Dan Kenary. “We are not changing who we are, or most importantly, the beer inside the bottle, can, or keg. But we are working hard to do a better job of telling our story, especially to beer drinkers who may not know us well.”
The brewery’s flagship Harpoon IPA is the first to undergo the refresh. The new design maintains several of the classic elements from the original Harpoon IPA package including the checked background pattern, the bluish-purple and orange color scheme, and the tiger lilies. New elements include a bolder, larger Harpoon logo, a larger background check pattern, and a tiger icon.
The IPA package was designed by Harpoon’s in-house creative team, led by Creative Director Adam Bailey. “Our goal was to create something that would stand out on the shelves and draw the eye to the package,” says Bailey. “We needed to do a better job of communicating who we are in our packaging – we needed to let our personality shine through.” Boston-based brand strategy firm Catapult Thinking provided guidance through the process.
Next in line for the refresh is Harpoon Take 5 Session IPA, the brewery’s newest year-round beer released this past May, followed by their summer seasonal beer. The transformation will be complete by the end of 2016.
“The new IPA package and refreshed Harpoon logo are just the beginning,” Kenary adds. “Change can be tough, but we love it. After all, if beer drinkers had not been willing to embrace change over the past 30 years, we would all still be drinking light yellow lagers and not knowing what we were missing! I couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead for Harpoon.”
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