Beekeep Brewing | Package Design — Nathaniel Schardin Design

Beekeep Brewing + Silent Poet Mead

Package Design | Fall 2019

The brief for this project was to develop a name and brand for a beverage company as well as design the packaging and point-of-purchase display for their signature drink.

Right away I knew I wanted to develop a company the uses honey in their beverages. I’m a major historical fantasy nerd, so mead was my drink of choice. The idea behind Beekeep Brewing is that they are a local craft brewery that owns and manages a sustainable and ethical bee farm. They use the honey produced in their drinks.
Silent Poet Mead is the flagship drink of Beekeep Brewing. The name comes from the Norse myth about the origin of mead and the logo was designed to look like a carved runic bee.
I wanted the packaging for Silent Poet Mead to be an experience for the customer. Beekeep Brewing doesn’t use more honey than is necessary, so the mead is an expensive and celebratory drink. In the Norse myth about the origin of mead, it is said that Kvasir, a poet, was killed by two dwarves and his blood was mixed with honey to create the first mead. Anybody who drank this “Mead of Poetry” was endowed with wisdom and they became a poet themselves. The box was inspired by the Norse instrument, the Talharpa, carried by Kvasir.

Making a logo for the makers of mead.

The logo for Beekeep Brewing went through many stages, but I ultimately went with the “bee box” design, inspired by the hives at apiaries that busy honey bees call home. You can see the evolution of the logo below:

Inspired by the Vikings

When I think of mead I think of Vikings. The runes that the Vikings used, known as “Younger Futhark” were a major influence on the design of the Silent Poet logo. Originally I wanted to make a mark based on the Scandinavian instrument called the Talharpa. However, it was decided that the instrument proved to be too obscure for recognition. Evolution of the logo below:

Single Pack

With sustainability and ethics in mind, Beekeep Brewing doesn’t use more honey than is necessary, which means that Silent Poet Mead is an expensive and celebratory drink. In the Norse myth about the origin of mead, it is said that Kvasir, a poet, was killed by two dwarves and his blood was mixed with honey to create the first mead. Anybody who drank this “Mead of Poetry” was endowed with wisdom and they themselves became a poet. The idea behind the wood box for the packaging, was that it was created from the broken Talharpa that Kvasir carried around.

Multi-Pack

Point-of-Purchase Display

As with the packaging of the mead itself, I wanted the point-of-purchase display to create an experience for the customer. Drinks such as whiskey often sit in wooden barrels, and I’ve seen POP displays made to look like a whiskey barrel. The idea here is the same, except instead of a barrel I used a “bee box,” the hive that apiaries keep bees in. Design process below: