Canada Dry

How do you evolve a beloved, 130-year-old beverage brand and packaging family for the modern world? You start by studying its history. The iconic elements that people know and love, worldwide. The main design challenge was for the brand and packaging system to be refreshed in a current manner, while respecting a longstanding legacy. Our brand team reviewed hundreds of archival brand specimens, advertising, and packaging to inform the new work, to land a seamless transition between the past and the future.

The refresh is anchored in a few key brand attributes: Signature Color, Badge, Crown, and a newly designed, custom Wordmark. Our team thoughtfully strengthened each component with sensitivity to the legacy, awareness of modern category cues, and mindfulness of the complete family.

The result is a modernized, cohesive, and flexible design system across a complex range of 50+ different SKUs. Consumer research revealed that the new design was easier to identify on shelf due to its iconic simplicity. Somehow it felt unchanged because it felt so right.

The refreshed visual identity and packaging suite launched September 2022 in Canada, providing guidance to visual communications, advertising campaigns, and future products.

BRANDING, Packaging Design, BRAND GUIDELINES

ARCHIVAL SPECIMENS. Our design team studied the archives across decades to understand and identify the relationship between the brand’s iconic elements, and the peoples’ love for them, across generations. From this audit, iconic elements that may have been lost along the way, were strengthened and optimized, ultimately to land a, “hasn’t it always been this” kind of authenticity.

Custom crafted wordmark. The typographic choice of a sharp serif creates a sense of flow among the letters and is heritage inspired.

“Wedge’s passion for the brand and dedication is more than I’ve ever experienced with an agency partner and more than could ever have been expected.”

Erika Maddox
Brand Manager

“A rebranding on one of the most iconic trademarks in Canada is no small task, but the Wedge team completely embraced the challenge.  Not only do they radiate a passion for design, but they were also grounded in the strategic intent of our objective, ensuring we had the right insights and validation plan to ensure we were doing what’s best for Canada Dry.”

Cameron Butt
Director of Marketing