Brand Matters and Morning rebrand brewer Greene King

The new identity ditches the fictional Greene King character, invented from a conflation of the company founders’s names, and instead references the crown of Christian martyr St Edmund, who gave his name to Suffolk town of Bury St Edmunds, the home of Greene King.

Brand Matters creative partner Simon John says the consultancy was invited by Greene King to give an outline proposal on developing a new identity following consultancy on positioning by marketing consultant Andrew Marsden.

Brand Matters then collaborated with Morning to develop an identity that would offer authenticity and better reflect the personality of the brand.

Morning creative director Ian Haughtons says this meant moving away from a Greene King brand character to instead reference St Edmund, who became a Christian martyr when he was shot with arrows by Danes.

John says, ‘[The identity] is based on a stained-glass Saxon symbol we found. It will bring the whole organisation together and feel distinct and identifiable.’

This allows the identity to be differentiated ‘from all the other crown symbols like Carlsberg’ says Haughton.

Inspired by English humanist fonts, a bespoke St Edmund Sans typeface has been created and a green, bronze and stone palette developed in reference to the Suffolk landscape.

The new look will now begin to roll out across Greene King’s beer brands, pub estate and corporate materials in the following months.