Cutwater/NUTRL co-branded space at PPG Paints Arena
When space is limited, sometimes brands need to share. But how do you marry the two without one overtaking the other?
In this co-branded space, I had to balance the clear, composed brand of NUTRL with the graphic style of Cutwater Spirits. I had to find the ways that each brand spoke to the other.
In NUTRL’s case, their branding is very minimalist. Plain text. Few words. Clean backgrounds with photographs of fruit or single colors to convey to you the flavor. One color per can at most, if you don’t count black or white.
Cutwater, by contrast, is a clean brand, but utilizes bright patterns with rich colors. Each can has a themed pattern. Next to each other, one is going to draw your eye more than the other. So what do you do?
In this case, I resolved the matter by drawing the two styles closer together. Cutwater had colors and patterns, but there was a way to make them more subtle and let the text speak for itself. NUTRL, while minimalistic, had photographic elements with which I could bring in more color, more texture.
And in the end, they balance each other. Light and dark. Photograph and graphic. Pattern and space.