ABOUT

Rebranding a monastic age-old Belgian herb brewery for the 21st century.

In 2017, Gruut approached Ilk Agency to rebrand their dated but acclaimed brewery and beers, ahead of future imports to the UK market. With no brand awareness in the UK itself, we had the freedom to explore completely fresh visual identities, while remaining loyal to the history and locality of the Belgian brewery.

This particular concept journeyed the brewery into the 21st century with a brave and bold approach to typesetting, uniform layout structures and bespoke illustrations of key landmarks from the city of its birth, Ghent.

A key focus of the visual communications was to describe the story of the brewing process. In the 14th century, breweries on the left bank of the River Leie were restricted by law to produce beers with hops, and as such the brewing of beers with herbs was devised to keep the masses tippled. These beers were known as Gruut.