The Challenge
To rename and rebrand the famous Porterhouse Bar on Dublin’s Grafton Street. Creating a new branding scheme for an already widely recognised brand was both a challenge and an opportunity.
We took inspiration from both The Porterhouse Group’s existing palette of colours, and the Porterhouse Brewery’s physical components, and created a completely original name and branding scheme for the venue. The new name – Tapped – was inspired by the 50 taps serving beer, wine, and cocktails in the recently refurbished venue.
The Brief
Essentially to give the venue a fresh look, a catchy name, and a renewed level of appeal to a younger adult audience.
The idea for this new branding scheme was inspired by the industrial, mechanical, and tactile nature of The Porterhouse brewery. Stepping into the brewery, you are greeted by a vast network of pipes, each leading to and from various pieces of brewing and bottling equipment. There is a distinctly industrial feel to the brewery, as gleaming metal equipment contrasts with the rough, raw brick walls.
The Result
The new logo we designed leans into this industrial style, and is a visual representation of this network of pipes. The lettering is a bold, clear, custom typography, again inspired by pipework as it twists and turns at 90 degree angles. The colour scheme is based upon the Porterhouse Group’s existing palette, with the addition of a shade of teal as an identifier for this specific venue. This new, urban-inspired colour scheme retains the Porterhouse Group’s recognisable branding while introducing a new colour that pops nicely from the slightly moodier, dark, existing range of tones.
For the venue itself, we created a physical sign-board based on all of the above influences. We wanted the sign to be a further evolution of the branding, and to incorporate another element of the brewery – the industrial-style informational tags that are seen on pallets, boxes, and kegs. The sign is a heavy-duty, physical representation of one of these tags, and is an eye-catching physical melange of the pipework, tags, and the custom typography.
Overall, the eclectic influences of the brewery’s pipes, the industrial-style tags, and the Porterhouse Group’s brand colours enhanced with a new tone all retain the essence of the brand, and bring the context of the brewery to life in the revised branding scheme. The new branding is unmistakably part of the Porterhouse Group, but is a modern evolution geared towards a younger, more discerning adult audience.
The client kindly (and happily) reported the following stats as a result of our work:
* >400% increase in followers on social media
* 32% increase in turnover