ANGRY ORCHARD HARD CIDER
CRISP APPLE TAP HANDLE | TALL + SHOTGUN HANDLE
THE WHY?
As the Creative Director I worked with a group of incredibly talented designers + illustrators to develop and launch the Angry Orchard brand into the marketplace. Alongside the original packaging and launch of Angry Orchard Hard Cider in addition to the on-shelf packaging the Tap Handle is a very important instrument. It had to have the strong branding that the package already had and it had to stop someone in their place.
THE HOW?
The conversation about the tap handle began during Qualitative Groups. What started as a one off "hey we should do this" comment that I made to the Sales Direction the National Tap Handle was born the basic of idea of how to create an impact on the bar stanchion. Basically the idea was "let's take the tree and put it on every bar stanchion we can." The tree is the soul of the brand and product it showcases. It presents each style's attitude and taste of the cider it was always going to be our biggest advocate to the end consumer and we should (and did) embrace that tactic. What did I do? Starting with the conversation and the idea and the nod to follow that idea I went back to the packaging and realized that the handle had to have the face. Tapping the same illustrator who rocked on the initial pack's characters/trees we started to tackle how to bring the Crisp Apple guy into a fully formed object by translating the Crisp Tree to a 3D object.
THE FOLLOW THROUGH?
Once we got the render down I worked with the Brand Team and the Tap Vendors to get the form right fitting the constraints and cost limitations that this national handle required. Once we went through a few versions of forms we then had to nail the paint and color. This required that we find a tolerance for application since each of these handles are hand painted. That is how we got to the stanchion.
