Interesting blog on Newquay Steam Beer

A C O U P L E  of months ago, I opened an email received from beer blog writing team, Boak and Bailey. Their enquiry arrived out of the blue, as our name had been stumbled upon via Google by Ray Bailey and Jessica Boak, the pair who write a hugely interesting and authoritative blog about the best beers and the pubs that serve them. Their informative blog can be found here. 

Ray told me that he and Jessica were planning to write an in depth article on Newquay Steam Beer, the west country beer brand success of the late eighties and the one in which my design agency, Hampson Partnership was actively involved. 

He asked if I might help him with any details regarding the creative work that Hampson Partnership had been responsible for in those heady days. That was all the encouragement I needed to head over and retrieve images from my files, re-boot my memory and recall the 'thousand miles an hour' design projects of days working with Devenish Brewery. 

Weymouth day trips never have and never will be quite the same.

 

A detail of the first label for Newquay Steam Bitter  |  Packaging designed by Hampson Partnership

Ray's article recalls how, during a design progress meeting, Micheal Cannon approved our label design, but was hesitant at the inclusion of the expensive 'Grolsch-style' ceramic stopper proposed in our design.

Paul Hampson:

"I recall presenting sketches of our ceramic flip-top stopper to Michael, the result of which was a prolonged silence. Didn’t  I know how much more expensive the ceramic top would make this new product and wasn’t I aware of the potential cost saving of a bog standard metal cap?  A couple of heart beats later, he approved our ceramic top design and instructed us to forge ahead with production without delay."

Ray's blog continues:

Cannon’s nose for what would make money was infallible. Those stoppers, and complete transparency about ingredients and alcohol content, helped the brand stand out in a market place where beautiful-looking bottled beers were then few and far between.


Ray and Jessica's blog deserves a read if good beers, pubs, branding and beer imagery hold any interest for you. Their informed post gives a complete insight into the way in which the Newquay brand was developed, designed and launched. From a former sleepy west country brewery to successful brand owner, Newquay Steam was eventually swallowed by Whitbread. Read the blog at boakandbailey.com

 
For more on how packaging remains my specialisation and passion, call me on 01425 402115 for  a chat on brand design or email me on this link.

Paul Hampson

A building company Identity and website

A builder friend recently persuaded me to design his new brand identity. Having landed some substantial jobs recently, he needed to have smart site boards outside some of the bigger projects to publicise his high standard of work.

The name Orchard was chosen and a simple tree graphic matched with a classic sans font seemed to project the right feel for his company and reflect its work - strong, substantial and beautiful to view once complete.

Website for International Engineering Company

An engineering company based in Yorkshire asked us to design their identity and website. Most of their business arrives via personal introductions, often made at meetings at international trade fairs and seminars. However, their website needed to illustrate their product range in detail and to act as a point of reference for new customers to view.

One of the web pages from the new site. Lancereal supply specialist clutches for a wide range of  industrial applications.

A slightly different approach

This is a slight change from my recognised pencil style. I am often asked to draw in a traditional way with soft pencil and bright watercolour, but this time, I used Photoshop to complete this quirky piece. The man with a megaphone was used for a solicitor's announcement ad.

You can view samples of my regular illustration work here and let me know if you prefer my old style, or if you like this new look.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

Sometimes the soft pencil works with digital colouring, as this drawing for a solicitors firm shows

Savannah Mansion painting sold to a 'good home'

A couple of years ago, I was fortunate enough to have had an exhibition of my artworks in Savannah, Georgia, in The United States. The architecture there is wonderful and caught my attention, with the contrast of beautiful mouldings on the woodwork and sometimes peeling paintwork. This painting, which featured one such building was sold to a London couple recently. I watched it leave with a combination of sadness and gladness. Glad to have sold it, but sad in a way as it was such an absorbing painting to complete.

 

Eighteen months in the planning and building, but now complete, this is our new oak and glass studio - a fantastic workspace. To maximise light, we commissioned a pale polished concrete floor and full depth floor to ceiling windows. The large skylights have helped to make a light filled space in which to design, create, illustrate, meet up with clients and friends and just get inspired.

We look forward to meeting clients new and existing in the months ahead.

Our studio, with maximum light, lots of skylights and a pale polished floor.

Design and branding for award winning Coast Coffee

Hampson Partnership Branding

Restaurants, cafes and pubs were honoured at the Christchurch Food and Wine festival's Best of the Best awards. The event at the town's Regent Centre was introduced by Mark Collins from Wave 105 FM and prizes were presented by TV chef, Lesley Waters. Chistchurch based Coastline Foods sponsored the awards.

Award winning Coast Coffee

Amongst the winners was Coast Coffee, the identity for which was created by Hampson Partnership using a dark blue colour palette, classic typography and woodcut illustration. "Seeing our latest work up and running is always a positive feeling, especially so when the brand gets noticed so quickly". said designer Paul Hampson. We worked closely with Sally and Chris Jose on the design and we're very pleased that Coast has been recognised so soon after its launch on the High Street".

Woodcut style illustration used in Coast's promotion

Coast identity by Hampson Partnership

Packaging From The Start

This year we celebrate our 25th year in business as a design agency. Hampson Partnership started in August 1986 with three people, a couple of design accounts and bags of ambition. Looking back at some of the landmark projects we undertook at the time, there are a few that stand out as being real success stories. Newquay Steam Beer was one such brand.  Newquay Steam was the brainchild of the new managing director of the day at Devenish Brewery in Weymouth, Dorset.

To see my updated piece about Newquay Steam Beer, see my latest post.

Steam Beer. A brand created at the start of our design business.

Michael Cannon had the ideas and the drive to make his plans work. This beer brand was his concept and the imagery was created by the team at Hampson Partnership. Once launched, we saw its success rocket to create sales of 24 million pints in its peak year. Back then, all the visual tricks were requested to be included in the design, from woodcut illustration to gold foil brand name. We insisted at the time that the bottle should have a wire closer and ceramic top - which became its personality and most memorable feature. Things have moved on of course, but if a brand's success is measured in its resulting sales, then this brand established itself as an outright winner. For more information on this and other packaging contact us.


More drinks sector branding design

Another drinks sector project at the time was Stonehouse Cider. The name was originated at Hampsons and the pack design developed and launched by our team in those early years. The stonehouse is the place where the apples were traditionally packed and ground to make the apple juice, so it seemed a natural brand name for a west country cider product.

Inch's Stonehouse Cider  |   Designed by Hampson Partnership

New business branding

Quite recently, a friend who was starting her new veterinary practice asked if we would help with designing her business logo. Signage was planned together with business stationery and press advertising to support the start-up. Uncomplicated graphics were chosen together with a visual link to the New Forest, the area in which the practice serves. To learn more about Bransgore Vets, go here

 

A website for a new solicitor client.

We have been working for Dixon Stewart, a new solicitor client since the Spring of this year. The project has been a really interesting one; a branding scheme to get our teeth into with a redesigned logo, signage, and full website redesign. It made a refreshing change to create these items all at one time. In my experience, this is where a graphic design team can add real commercial value for a client who has the forward thinking to do it.

Visit the new Dixon Stewart Website Here

I designed the website with my friend Gary, who knows his way round Spry, html and Flash like the very best web wizzard. The portrait pictures, and other site photography were my responsibility too, as were the graphics on the stationery, signage and the rest of the project.

More later.